Tuesday, June 15, 2004

If two people make the same choice... who chooses who gets what?

One of the philosophical problems about 'giving people choice' is that it is not really as simple as it sounds. The freedom for parents to 'choose' to send their children to the school of their choice was a nonsense, because the places at the 'best' schools would be oversubscribed and you didn't get that choice. If one hospital can carry out so many hip operations quicker than the others, can everyone choose to go there. No... because they would not have the capacity. So, when this man talks about choice, he really means leaving these things to the law of the jungle.