> Let the market decide...in the end, I just can't imagine all those types of toothpaste will survive.
The idea that the "market will decide" is based on people in aggregate making informed decisions, such that the poor products fail. The reality is that people are not masters of every domain, toothpaste choices are basically arbitrary, but it's more time consuming to inspect 30 options than to inspect 5.
Also there is the practise of building one manufacturing line and selling the product under multiple brands [1], giving you "artificial" choice. If we're going to reduce choice, starting with these would be low hanging fruit.
That's an interesting observation! "The market" is aware of how we make decisions. Its no accident there are too many choices, thus we can't keep them all in our heads, so we can't ever find the best or worst brand. That's got to be intended!
>Also there is the practise of building one manufacturing line and selling the product under multiple brands [1], giving you "artificial" choice.
Ok, so what is your solution?
It should seem just as obvious that having some sort of regulated toothpaste market is also a form of "artificial choice" ie someone(s) somewhere are limiting it.
Ah, so you pose it as selecting the lesser of two evils, regulation constricted choice, or capitalism fuelled artificial choice? Option A burns political capital to enforce, option B externalises the costs to consumers.
I think the real solution is to address the root of the problem, which is that people (in aggregate) are not making informed decisions. We need to reduce the time/effort required to evaluate the options. It seems like the information age is already moving us in the right direction -- internet searching with your smartphone is quite easy and you can do it on the spot. But we're also moving backwards due to the excessive number of choices; searching >=20 toothpastes is still too daunting, and there is the issue of artificial reviews posted by toothpaste sellers.
Additional regulation could be the answer if it helps customers compare products. We have nutritional information panels on food products, they are always the same format and are easy to compare. Medicinal products have the active ingredients and concentrations listed so you can compare.
An option is to verify the product claims and include those in a standard format like the nutritional panel. Vaguely positive statements like "supports a healthy lifestyle" wouldn't make it in, but solid statements like "kills >99% bacteria" would after it's been verified.
I selected the Crest 3D White after the same torturous 5 minutes :)
But I'm not sure all that choice made my life any worse for the ware, and I'm naturally suspicious of any heavy-handed solutions to keep them from us.
Let the market decide...in the end, I just can't imagine all those types of toothpaste will survive.