All Posts Tagged With: "paternalism"
The Myth of Unregulated Tobacco
On June 22, President Obama signed the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (FSPTCA), a law that gives the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulatory authority over tobacco products. The law requires the FDA to develop a new tobacco-regulation center with all related costs to be covered by fees paid by the industry. [...]
19Aug2009 | Bruce Yandle | 0 comments | ContinuedRaw Milk and the Sour State
Whether it is an expensive organic brand or simply carries a mega-chain store name, that milk has undergone pasteurization and homogenization. There is a growing subset of consumers who would prefer not to buy their milk this way. They want it unpasteurized, unhomogenized—in a word, “raw.”
20Jan2009 | William E. Pike | 6 comments | ContinuedPaternalist Nudges
Harvard law professor Cass Sunstein and University of Chicago economics professor Richard Thaler are self-proclaimed “libertarian paternalists” (http://tinyurl.com/6xy6l4). Contradiction in terms? They think not. According to their approach, “[G]overnments try to move people in good directions without imposing penalties, mandates or bans.” The part about “moving people in good directions” is the paternalism. The part [...]
1Nov2008 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedMarching to Bismarck’s Drummer: The Origins of the Modern Welfare State
Soviet socialism may now be a thing of the past, but there is one form of statism that still dominates the world, including the United States: the modern welfare state. Its tentacles of paternalistic control reach into every corner of personal and social life. It has made all of us “children of the state,” and [...]
1Dec2007 | Richard M. Ebeling | 0 comments | ContinuedNeed and Public Policy: Handle with Care
In public-policy debates the word most commonly invoked as the ace in the hole is “need.” However, “need” needs careful handling.
“Need” has the political advantage, but the logical disadvantage, of lacking a clear meaning. That allows it to be systematically abused to distort understanding and to reach desired conclusions that justify picking people’s pockets to [...]
Lee’s Legion of Lessons
The state is a harsh taskmaster with a taste for eating its own. A man may devote much of his life to its violence only to find himself on the receiving end one day. The Bible warns that “all those who take up the sword perish by the sword.” Yet distressing numbers of folks try [...]
1Sep2007 | Becky Akers | 0 comments | ContinuedLibertarian Paternalism?
Can paternalism and libertarianism be squared with each other? Two prominent scholars think so. University of Chicago law professor Cass Sunstein and University of Chicago economist Richard Thaler make a case for what they call “libertarian paternalism.” Here’s their argument.
A large body of experimental data, gathered mostly by behavioral psychologists and behavioral economists, shows that [...]
Why Not More Liberty?
Russell Roberts holds the Smith Chair at the Mercatus Center and is a professor of economics at George Mason University. He is a research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. His latest book is The Invisible Heart: An Economic Romance.
There are two extreme views of American government and the political process. One is that policy [...]
What Friends of Freedom Can Learn From The Socialists
On March 14, 1883, a German philosopher living in exile in London passed away. When he was buried three days later in a modest grave where his wife had been laid to rest two years earlier, fewer than ten people were present, half of them family members. His closest friend spoke at the gravesite and [...]
1Oct2004 | Richard M. Ebeling | 0 comments | ContinuedTwisting Economics Against Immigrants
P. Gardner Goldsmith is an independent journalist and screenwriter in New Hampshire.
On January 7 President Bush announced what appeared to be a sweeping plan to grant de-facto amnesty to millions of illegal aliens working in the United States. In fact, it was little more than a long-term worker-visa program that barely increased the ability of [...]
The WHO Global Treaty on Tobacco: A Smokescreen for More Government Control
Richard Ebeling is president of FEE.
On May 10 the U.S. government signed the World Health Organization’s (WHO) global treaty on tobacco control. While the treaty still has to be ratified by the Senate before it becomes the law of the land, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson declared at the signing: “President [...]
Nock Revisited
Some books and essays require regular re-reading. In the course of our busy lives, we can allow their subtle wisdom to fade into the landscape and lose their initial effect. A work of this kind is easy to spot: it is fresh and sparkling on every subsequent reading; each encounter with it feels like the [...]
1Jun2004 | Sheldon Richman Editor The Fr | 0 comments | ContinuedFree Markets, the Rule of Law, and Classical Liberalism
The history of liberty and prosperity is inseparable from the practice of free enterprise and respect for the rule of law. Both are products of the spirit of classical liberalism. But a correct understanding of free enterprise, the rule of law, and liberalism (rightly understood) is greatly lacking in the world today.
Historically, liberalism is the [...]
Is Social Security Reform Paternalistic?
One great, and valid, complaint about Social Security is that it is paternalistic: it does things for the individual that he should do for himself. In so doing, it commits the twin transgressions of forcing some people to support others and making the beneficiaries the servile dependents of the state.
1Jan2004 | John Attarian | 0 comments | ContinuedModeration in All Things
Donald Boudreaux is president of FEE.
Aristotle wisely advised moderation in all things. Gluttons and fanatics self-destruct by refusing to make the tradeoffs necessary to lead a good life. “Don’t tell me that I can’t drink and carouse every night and not succeed in my career!” insists the fool. “I can have it all.”
Well, he can’t. [...]
Sudden Impact: The Collision of Ethics and Air Bag Mandates
Loren Lomasky teaches philosophy at Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio, and is the author of Persons, Rights, and the Moral Community. This article is adapted from a paper published by the Competitive Enterprise Institute.
A John Elway forward pass travels toward its receiver at over 70 miles per hour; Randy Johnson’s fastball darts from [...]
Bums or Brothers?
The Reverend Mr. Sollitt is minister of the First Baptist Church of Midland, Michigan.
He was a tall, ungainly youth, but likable. He was sick much of the time; sometimes we felt he was less sick than he said. He had graduated from high school but could not afford to go to college, and didn’t [...]
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The End of Prosperity: How Higher Taxes Will Doom the Economy–If We Let it Happen
By Arthur B. Laffer, Stephen Moore, and Peter J. Tanous
