# Happier in the "olden days" even with less choices? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 14, 2013, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happier-in-the-olden-days-even-with-less-choices/666254 "2013-08-14T21:21:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2013, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happier-in-the-olden-days-even-with-less-choices/666254/41 "2013-08-15T18:36:54Z")
This is the [Paradox of Choice](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VO6XEQIsCoM) TED talk that others have referred to and it’s worth watching. I agree with others that the Good Old Days weren’t all that hot and I wouldn’t choose to live then over now but that misses the point. In the link above, Barry Schwartz makes a convincing case that increased choice does not result in increased happiness. That’s a paradox because mathematically it _has_ to. Unfortunately, we’re too psychologically complicated for the math to work. ---
**Author:** ![Longshanks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Longshanks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Longshanks)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2013, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happier-in-the-olden-days-even-with-less-choices/666254/42 "2013-08-15T18:40:54Z")
The good old days when things like central heating, medicine and knowledge of the human body among many other things were non-existent or available only to the privileged few. Oh man how I miss those good old days.:rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![shiftless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9c0ed/32.png) [@shiftless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shiftless)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2013, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happier-in-the-olden-days-even-with-less-choices/666254/43 "2013-08-15T19:35:43Z")
> [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](#): > > I wouldn’t even want to go back 25 years, much less 100-200 hundred. I love my computer and my I-pod and my big TV that plays in beautiful HD. Yep, I like now just fine, thank you very much. You forgot air conditioning. 30 years ago I got to be all superior to blacks and women and I could just pretend there were no gay people except for that weird guy down the block. Kids that were different were just ‘retarded’ and I could dismiss them too. It was generally OK to make fun of Jews and any other religion was fair game for jokes. Today I have air conditioning. Way better than racial/social/religious snobbery. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2013, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happier-in-the-olden-days-even-with-less-choices/666254/44 "2013-08-15T19:49:08Z")
> [@74westy](#): > > In the link above, Barry Schwartz makes a convincing case that increased choice does not result in increased happiness. I have a feeling that happiness is pretty independent of choice, unless there’s some good or service where none of the alternatives are good. I can see where the lack of choice between getting punched in the teeth or the balls would decrease happiness, but increasing it to the teeth, balls, stomach or nose wouldn’t increase it or decrease happiness either. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2013, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happier-in-the-olden-days-even-with-less-choices/666254/45 "2013-08-16T01:54:57Z")
Sam Lowry writes: \> I’ve read a book on that called “The Paradox of Choice.” Maybe the author was \> who did the TED Talk. And it was the book that I linked to three posts above yours. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Lowry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Sam\_Lowry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Lowry)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2013, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happier-in-the-olden-days-even-with-less-choices/666254/46 "2013-08-16T15:49:45Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Sam Lowry writes: > > \> I’ve read a book on that called “The Paradox of Choice.” Maybe the author was > \> who did the TED Talk. > > And it was the book that I linked to three posts above yours. I was guessing so, I just couldn’t watch the video at the time. I’m going to try to watch the TED Talk later, should be interesting. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2013, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happier-in-the-olden-days-even-with-less-choices/666254/47 "2013-08-16T15:56:04Z")
> [@Longshanks](#): > > The good old days when things like central heating, medicine and knowledge of the human body among many other things were non-existent or available only to the privileged few. Oh man how I miss those good old days.:rolleyes: > [@shiftless](#): > > You forgot air conditioning. … Today I have air conditioning. Way better than racial/social/religious snobbery. I love that I can guess the general climate where someone lives by whether they mention “heating” or “air-conditioning” as their response. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2013, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happier-in-the-olden-days-even-with-less-choices/666254/48 "2013-08-16T16:44:56Z")
> [@shiftless](#): > > You forgot air conditioning. > > 30 years ago I got to be all superior to blacks and women and I could just pretend there were no gay people except for that weird guy down the block. Kids that were different were just ‘retarded’ and I could dismiss them too. It was generally OK to make fun of Jews and any other religion was fair game for jokes. > > Today I have air conditioning. Way better than racial/social/religious snobbery. 30 years ago? You mean after Stonewall, at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, long after the voting rights act, long after votes for women? The only people who made fun of Jews are Jews. (It’s what we do.) If you were living in Alabama I can see it, but the civilized world was way beyond this thirty years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2013, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happier-in-the-olden-days-even-with-less-choices/666254/49 "2013-08-16T17:03:02Z")
In general, I think pretty much all people are the same happy over the years. It has to do with making the most of your situation. Happy, contented people were/are happy. Discontented, unhappy people were/are unhappy. I think it is the unhappy people who look back to “olden times” and think other people were happier back then. ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2013, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happier-in-the-olden-days-even-with-less-choices/666254/50 "2013-08-16T17:09:35Z")
> [@](#): > > ``` > Originally Posted by **Yelping with Cormac** > But if you’d of asked me to pick a chair I’m not sure I could of. > > ``` Fifty years ago that sentence would have led to the \*electric \*chair. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2013, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happier-in-the-olden-days-even-with-less-choices/666254/51 "2013-08-16T18:06:56Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > I love that I can guess the general climate where someone lives by whether they mention “heating” or “air-conditioning” as their response. 😃 And for Connecticut, you’d assume…? Heating: essential half the year. AC: as essential as in California or the South three months of the year (80+ degrees and 75-90 humidity…) Surprise. ---
**Author:** ![Poto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ab992/32.png) [@Poto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poto)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2013, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happier-in-the-olden-days-even-with-less-choices/666254/52 "2013-08-16T18:18:17Z")
Sure. Give me pencil and paper, though. I hated ink wells. We had them in school. By 3rd grade every kid had ink pens with cartridges. Ball points were forbidden, pencils allowed. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2013, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happier-in-the-olden-days-even-with-less-choices/666254/53 "2013-08-16T18:25:53Z")
I dunno, the olden days had a lot of hard choices. I mean, it’s so tough choosing between TB, typhoid, polio, and smallpox. ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2013, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happier-in-the-olden-days-even-with-less-choices/666254/54 "2013-08-16T18:36:07Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > I dunno, the olden days had a lot of hard choices. I mean, it’s so tough choosing between TB, typhoid, polio, and smallpox. No choice required. You could get all four the same day. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2013, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happier-in-the-olden-days-even-with-less-choices/666254/55 "2013-08-16T18:55:33Z")
> [@Kenm](#): > > No choice required. You could get all four the same day. Luxury, my family only got one debilitating, probably fatal disease and we liked it! Most people weren’t posh plague carriers, but mere peasants! ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2013, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happier-in-the-olden-days-even-with-less-choices/666254/56 "2013-08-16T18:57:31Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > I don’t think the kind of choice we’re talking about here has a big impact on happiness. A lot of people in the past had much stronger social bonds than we have now. Sure, we may have hundreds of Facebook friends but we tend to have fewer close friends we can confide in and turn to when in crisis than people did even fifty years ago. I think this is more in line with the op’s position which was narrowly defined. I think my parent’s generation were less happy with the great depression but more happier following WW-II and it wasn’t the level of choices that made the difference. It was job security and a sense of community. I have far more possessions than my parents ever had but I would trade them for job security and the atmosphere of the community I use to live in. When I was 5 I walked or rode my bike a half mile to school. This would be unheard of today. We knew every person on our block. this is a rarity today. Life was actually simpler and more fulfilling then. That can’t be said for everybody but it could be said for my community. The positive social changes that have occurred since then cannot be denied but neither can the loss of the social graces. But again, the op is talking about product choices. How many different beers does a store need to carry? How many different phones or computers are there on the market. It’s mind boggling and the funny thing is we are actually losing product choices in many areas. This is because we are losing small local stores to large chains and with that we lose the time honored process of store buyers. My local grocery store is a huge national chain yet their is no sense of professional buyers in their choice of product. I have to seek out a local chain of stores that is smaller in size yet carriers a better selection of products because they obviously have buyers who seek out good products. ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2013, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happier-in-the-olden-days-even-with-less-choices/666254/57 "2013-08-16T19:28:55Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > Luxury, my family only got one debilitating, probably fatal disease and we liked it! Most people weren’t posh plague carriers, but mere peasants! I broke out in boils the size of soup bowls and thought nothing of it. Turned out I was allergic to our cardboard-box home in the middle of the street and the boils disappeared one winter’s morning when a snowplow destroyed it and ripped off me poor mum’s arms and legs but still left the mouth to feed. But we didn’t complain. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2013, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happier-in-the-olden-days-even-with-less-choices/666254/58 "2013-08-16T23:09:11Z")
> [@Whitney\_Harper](#): > > I think people were happier (or at least more contented) in the “olden days” i.e., 100-200 years ago. Speaking for myself, it seems as if there is just too much of everything these days, too many choices, etc. and that, of course, causes additional stress. Way back when, there were probably two or three choices for health and beauty aids, food products, etc., and now we are overwhelmed. In addition, even when selecting a mate, we have so many choices especially if we are doing on-line dating. More choices doesn’t seem to make us happier, as the divorce rate is still high. Were folks just more satisfied with less back then, and appreciated what they did have? Any comments and/or opinions? My grandmother died last November just shy of her 108th birthday. She once told me that she didn’t believe there had ever been any “good old days.” She said she LIKED things like indoor bathrooms, refrigerators, indoor water, fans, freezers, air conditioning, electric washers and dryers, and so on. She said life was easier now. The only thing she said she missed was friends who already died. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happier-in-the-olden-days-even-with-less-choices/666254.md?page=2)