THE VIRTUE OF RESTRAINT.

• Author: GARDNER, GARY
• Position: Are we a nation of excess

IS THERE SUCH A THING AS TOO MUCH CHOICE?

It was supposed to be a quick run to the food store. All I needed was a quart of milk and some cereal for a house guest. I hurried into the Giant, our aptly named supermarket, and made my way to the breakfast cereals, wondering what kind my friend would like. I began pacing the aisle, absorbed in the choices stacked in front of me. Corn flakes or raisin bran? Name brand or store brand? Single packs or full size? Sugared or plain--or maybe chocolate-flavored? Overwhelmed by the variety, I wheeled around and surveyed my path. The entire aisle, from top to bottom on one side, was stocked with cereal, something I'd never noticed before. My curiosity now piqued, I retraced my steps, this time counting. Grand total: 130 different kinds, sizes, and brands of cereal available to the discerning shopper.

On the way home, I pondered the experience, searching for the advantage of such extensive choice. I have often heard it said that "development is anything that increases one's options," a shorthand definition that holds a tidy appeal. After all, a primary reason Germany is regarded as more developed than, say, Haiti, is that Germans have more opportunities--more options--than Haitians do. Is a country with 130 cereals really better off--more developed, all other things being equal--than a country with just 10? As our development advances, should we be aiming for 200 different cereal choices?

It seems to me that the benefits of ever-expanding choice have been oversold in wealthy countries. The same food system that can offer 130 different kinds of cereal helps create a nation of excess. A majority of American adults are overweight, and one in five is obese, partly because we are offered an almost endless selection of foods high in sugar and fat--foods that are heavily promoted and available cheaply, at any hour, almost any place. We face an alarming rise in infections that resist treatment, and that could trigger plagues of a kind we once thought conquered, because this economic system promotes generous access to antibiotics. Without a sense of restraint--an understanding of the wise and often limited use of options-ever-expanding choice becomes a "tyranny of freedom," as professor of psychology Barry Schwartz of Swarthmore College puts it, that can actually retard or even unravel our development.

As I arrived home, I couldn't help but contrast my experience of selecting a cereal with some of the more important decisions I had ever made: who I would marry, what job I would accept, which house I would buy. With cereals, I had an avalanche of information about price, quantity, flavor, texture, ingredients-along with less useful data, such as which celebrity athletes or cartoon characters endorse which brands. Moreover, I had all the time I wanted to make my decision, since the supermarket was open 24 hours. And even with all this information, if I'd made a disappointing cereal choice, it would have been of little consequence.

On the other hand, when I bought a house, got married, or took a job that might well change my life, my choices were much more limited and information about them was considerably harder to get. A lot of that information was subjective or hidden or needed a great deal of soul-searching. The TV offered no advice. Moreover, on these more important questions, time pressures loomed, and a poor decision was likely to bring great grief. My options, it turns out, were quite constrained. And yet, I think I did a better job with these major decisions than I did with the cereal.

We consider these important, limited-choice decisions to be character-building, formative, developmental. Not only are options few, but the commitment required by these choices means foreclosing huge sets of other choices-we do nor normally continue to look for new houses, jobs, or spouses once we have committed. Here, the limits on choice are central to a person's development. My plethora of cereal options, by contrast-the knowledge that any kind of early morning sweet is possible-does little for my development. Most of those options are just different ways of delivering sugar-offering little real choice, I should add-and could increase my risk of tooth decay, heart disease, or diabetes. Having a larger number of choices doesn't necessarily bring happier outcomes.

Many people seem to understand, intuitively, that development and restraint go hand in hand. Parents set limits for their children-bed-times, allowances, constraints on offensive language or behavior-so the kids can develop to their fullest potential. The budding swimming star, if she wants a shot at making the Olympic ream, will inevitably have to limit her social time. Yet, consumption-driven economics promotes, without embarrassment, the antagonistic concepts of development and unlimited consumption. The message we get from our business pages, TV commercials, and politicians is that you can't consume too much, your credit card balances can't be too high, and the number of cereal brands in the store simply can't be too many. The challenge, for those who sense that that message is self-serving, is to build economies that harness the creativity of capitalism while recognizing the central importance of restraint in true development.

THE UGLY SIDE OF EXCESS

As it generates greater wealth, the growth driven by mass consumption is also producing some troubling side effects. Most fundamental is the failure of advanced industrial societies to deliver widely their most hyped product: well-being, or happiness. Studies of societal happiness show that income growth and happiness, which once marched upward together, have been uncoupled. In the United States, for example, the share of people describing themselves as "very happy" declined from 35 percent in 1957 to 30 percent today, despite a more than doubling of income per person. For many of us, it seems, the more we ask consumption to fill our lives, the emptier we feel.

This malaise may also be reflected in the prevalence of depression, which public health officials now describe as an "epidemic" in industrial...