Of course there are places like that now; if you're an American, you're living in one. "Consumer choice" didn't save us, because everyone made the same choices and all of the corporations behind those choices merged and repackaged their all-too-similar products with slightly different branding.
But, as you say, that's not because people don't want choice. It's because the choice was often between "safe and decent and expensive" and "unhealthy or dangerous but cheap" and sometimes even "unhealthy or dangerous and also expensive." The choice wasn't meaningful.
I live in an apartment, but I've got a few food plants on my deck. People do what they can within a broken system driven by the profit motive (read: exploitation), but it IS a system and it IS broken, and that's something that no amount of advocating for "consumer choice" or "working hard" within the broken system will change. And you bet your ass that I'd love to see what we have get replaced with one with fewer "choices", where the remainder are actually good ones.
Maybe stop complaining yourself and make that happen. As for me, I'm getting ready to harvest my sweet potatoes and draw a few storyboards. Hopefully one day the world will catch up to the fact that I don't actually have to do the former because we produce more than enough industrially, and that people who can do the latter are a badge of honor for our objective prosperity, and not a burden.
But, as you say, that's not because people don't want choice. It's because the choice was often between "safe and decent and expensive" and "unhealthy or dangerous but cheap" and sometimes even "unhealthy or dangerous and also expensive." The choice wasn't meaningful.
I live in an apartment, but I've got a few food plants on my deck. People do what they can within a broken system driven by the profit motive (read: exploitation), but it IS a system and it IS broken, and that's something that no amount of advocating for "consumer choice" or "working hard" within the broken system will change. And you bet your ass that I'd love to see what we have get replaced with one with fewer "choices", where the remainder are actually good ones.
Maybe stop complaining yourself and make that happen. As for me, I'm getting ready to harvest my sweet potatoes and draw a few storyboards. Hopefully one day the world will catch up to the fact that I don't actually have to do the former because we produce more than enough industrially, and that people who can do the latter are a badge of honor for our objective prosperity, and not a burden.