More Freedom to Choose

 Rachel Laudan has a recent post  on the variety of food stores within a 6 mile radius of her Cincinnati home.

I could do a similar post about the Northern Virginia area, centered on Reston.  One notable addition: we have Wegmans.  

It's a big change since I was a boy.  Tyler Cowen did an early book arguing this point, although focused on art, IIRC--i.e., that while the world was becoming more similar, the diversity within many cultures/countries was growing.

"Economist Tyler Cowen argues that the capitalist market economy is a vital but underappreciated institutional framework for supporting a plurality of co-existing artistic visions, providing a steady stream of new and satisfying creations, supporting both high and low culture, helping consumers and artists refine their tastes, and paying homage to the past by capturing, reproducing, and disseminating it. Contemporary culture, Cowen argues, is flourishing in its various manifestations, including the visual arts, literature, music, architecture, and the cinema."

I think this is the book I remember.