ABSTRACT
Modern consumption must be placed in a historical context. Consumer sovereignty suggests that all economic production is ultimately driven by the preferences of consumers. If the economy is to promote well-being, all the goals must be taken into account. An economy that made people moderately happy as consumers but absolutely miserable as workers, citizens, or community members could hardly be considered a rousing success. Economists have traditionally defined consumers’ “problem” as how to maximize utility given their income constraints. Economists have developed a neoclassical model of utility that, like many economic models, is an abstraction from reality that is useful for illustrating a particular concept. Economists have traditionally assumed that having more options from which to choose can only benefit consumers, but research demonstrates that there is a cost to trying to process additional information. In fact, having too many choices can actually “overload” the ability to evaluate different options.
