Nobody wants a winner-take-all society.
On independent bookstores, society’s defaults, and the outcomes they produce.
Elliott Bay Book - Science section by brewbooks; licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
I went to a new bookstore the other day. I browsed the shelves, checked out the staff recommendations, and bought a couple of titles that looked interesting. I love bookstores, and I make a conscious effort to shop local and independent because I want these stores to continue to exist.
The problem is that it takes a conscious effort to shop at local independent bookstores. It would be easier and cheaper to get the same books online. I make the extra effort because I enjoy the experience of browsing, and the feeling of supporting the local business. I also have enough privilege that I don’t have to buy the books at the lowest possible price. But without these factors, the massive online retailer would be the default.
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Defaults are everywhere. They are the path of least resistance–the things that happen without extra effort. And they have a huge impact on our well-being, both as individuals and societies.
As individuals, our defaults are our habits–the things we do automatically, without thinking.1 Your ideal habits produce the outcomes you want. If you want to live in a clean house, your ideal habit is to put things away when you’re done with them. If you want to be more physically fit, your ideal habits are to eat healthy and exercise. Good habits are like passive income; they produce the desired outcome without extra effort.
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As a society, our defaults come from a variety of sources. Some are a matter of law–for example, whether or not you are presumed to be an organ donor. Some defaults are set by employers–for example, whether or not you are are automatically enrolled in a retirement plan. And some defaults are set by the services you use–for example, whether or not you consent to third-party access to your personal information.
Not every societal default is so clearly defined by a single authority. Some are a matter of custom, while others are the result of many different governmental and economic factors. But that doesn’t make them any less real. When a course of action is the path of least resistance, it’s fair to say–even in the absence of law or explicit policy–that it is the default for a society. And that means we should think about the outcome it produces.
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Let’s return to the bookstore example. The default action–the easiest and cheapest in most cases–is to buy books from the big business that’s headquartered somewhere else. The same is true for many other types of purchases. It is easier and cheaper to get groceries at the chain supermarket rather than the local farmer’s market. It is easier and cheaper to get hardware or electronics from the big box store, rather than a local retailer. Even for those of us trying to buy local, the default is to spend much of our money at big businesses.
What outcome does this produce? Based on the past few decades, the outcome seems to be a winner-take-all society. A select few reap extraordinary benefits, while most scramble for scraps. Massive enterprises leverage their status as the path of least resistance to become bigger and more powerful. Their executives and investors are enriched, while smaller businesses are squeezed out or just barely scrape by. This is not what most people want, but it’s the outcome our current defaults produce.
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There’s no easy way to change the situation. It would be easier if these defaults were the product of a single law or policy, but they are unfortunately the result of many different factors. And there are some good arguments that we shouldn’t undo all of them–for example, there may be instances where everyone is better off because the big business is so much more efficient.
But efficiency is not the only outcome we value. We also value widespread prosperity, not obscene wealth for a tiny few. And while some might say that we shouldn’t pick winners and losers, that is exactly what we are doing by leaving the existing defaults in place. It’s time we recognized that all defaults are ultimately a choice, and that we as a society can make a different choice.
Thinking is work, and our poor ape brains can only think so much before they decide we should stay up late eating ice cream.