Gil writes: > ... who gets to decide what counts as "adequate variety" and what counts as "fake variety"? Coke and Pepsi are apparently identical to Joanna but not to you. Should she get to determine which one you drink (or if you drink colas at all)?<
obviously, these decisions cannot be made by Joanna alone. Instead, such decisions -- what is adequate variety? what products are allowed? -- have to be made democratically by the population as a whole, and following democratic principles more profound than those that prevail in the U.S.
It should be pointed out that there's nothing radical at all about a government restricting the consumption of an item. After all, marijuana is illegal in the U.S. Also, governments have said a lot about what "adequate" variety is: the Pentagon, for example, has tried to veto the merger of military-industrial firms so as to allow the P to choose.
What's radical is subordinating the government -- and thus the market -- to democratic will.
JD
