variations on existing products, and a better shopping experience.

Economists have struggled, with only partial success, to address the question of whether a market-oriented

economy produces the optimal amount of variety. Critics of market-oriented economies argue that society

does not really need dozens of different athletic shoes or breakfast cereals or automobiles. They argue that

much of the cost of creating such a high degree of product differentiation, and then of advertising and

marketing this differentiation, is socially wasteful—that is, most people would be just as happy with a smaller

range of differentiated products produced and sold at a lower price. Defenders of a market-oriented economy

respond that if people do not want to buy differentiated products or highly advertised brand names, no one is

forcing them to do so. Moreover, they argue that consumers benefit substantially when firms seek short-term
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