Choice: The buck stops with you

Jam Tomorrow

Season finale: Since the War, Britons experienced an explosion of choice in food, services, work, utilities, even belief and sexuality. But did ever-increasing choices really lead us to the promised land? Why are we lost in a maze of competing phone contracts, train fares, and “options” from schools and hospitals – where choice is bewildering and meaningless?

In the last episode of this season, Ros Taylor finds out how choice and competition shaped the post-privatisation world from rail to energy to education – and where it let us down. Does more choice make people more empowered or just more fearful? And how do you run a society when you can choose your own truth?

• “Choice has liberated people and made life worth living. But in public services, it hasn’t worked so well…” – Ros Taylor

• “Parents who looked at more schools were more likely to find the whole thing stressful – and worry if they’d made the right choice.” – Aveek Bhattacharya

• “How do you incentivise a public service to do the best it can? The idea was to introduce some fake competition.” – John Appleby

• “When people feel fearful and insecure, their appetite for choice shrinks.” – Ros Taylor

Follow Jam Tomorrow on Twitter

Written and presented by Ros Taylor. Produced by Jade Bailey. Voiceovers by Imogen Robertson. Original music by Dubstar. Lead producer: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Jam Tomorrow is a Podmasters production.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices