Title: The Case Against Libertarian Paternalism – Reason.com
Headings: The Case Against Libertarian Paternalism
Regulation
The Case Against Libertarian Paternalism
There is no practical, objective way for an outside observer to define another individual's best interest.

Content: Then Justice Milton Tingling struck down the initiative as arbitrary and capricious, and New Yorkers danced in Union Square to celebrate the right to drink what they want. But there is more wrong with Nanny Bloomberg's nudge than its restrictions on New Yorkers' freedom to hype up on two liters of Peach Snapple. In The Manipulation of Choice, a concise and straightforward manifesto for freeing individual choice from the public sector's influence, the College of Staten Island philosopher Mark D. White argues that there also practical reasons why these nudges towards "correct living" are poor public policy. The moral certitude that even the most progressive New Yorkers felt about Bloomberg's limits on the size and location of "unhealthy drinks" was palpable in the days before the law was set to take effect. But a similar ban on trans fats in 2007 was implemented to little real protest. And tight restrictions on where you can smoke outside have become something New Yorkers have learned to live with. The lack of moral concern for these other paternalistic laws is why White argues the critique of nudges and so-called "libertarian paternalism" needs to be more robust. The idea of libertarian paternalism was popularized five years ago by the legal theorist Cass Sunstein and the behavioral economist Richard Thaler, in their bestselling book Nudge. Sunstein and Thaler argue that policymakers can preserve an individual's liberty while still nudging him towards choices that are supposedly in his best interests. A classic example is having employees automatically enrolled in a 401 (k) retirement account, rather than asking employees to opt in to such a program.