In Nudge, Thaler and Sunstein discuss the notion of libertarian paternalism.
This holds two things as true:
1. You should, in all cases, be able to make your own decisions.
2. The default decision should be a good one.
Obvious examples:
1. Automatic enrollment in 401(k) plans, and into a target year fund.
2. On a cafeteria-style lunch line, put the salad first and the dessert last. Make it so I have to reach across the oranges to even get to the snickers.
3. Enroll every kiddo in gym, health class, and some math.
In all sorts of ways, we make the default buyer beware, rather than positive. Our default mortgages are low-downpayment and high interest. Credit Cards make it easy to carry a balance. We offer illusionary convenience as the default, and make it seem unreasonable to live debt free.
We do this to ourselves in a bunch of different areas; we make life more expensive, poorer, and less healthy by the way we structure decisions for others.
And here's the best part: It in no way impacts your freedom if the default is good for you. You are still free to pay the minimum, get an ARM loan, or eat a dozen snickers bars.
Freedom may be the freedom to make stupid decisions (and starve due to it), but freedom isn't the freedom to have the deck stacked against you.
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Except most Libertarians then want you to be able to opt out of the education system entirely and certainly don't want to be required to help pay for it and think that public schools should be abolished and for pay private schools are all that should exist.
ReplyDeleteDig Deeper into their ideology.
Note I spent the better part of the 90s with a Libertarian friend who constantly lectured me on his politics and how they would fix America. He even ran for local public office back then (city Council). He later gained a similar office in another town this decade.
ReplyDeleteAnd I had another acquaintance who was our state's Libertarian candidate for state senate vs Ted Kennedy back in the day.
So I am WELL aware of the party line and all the various deeper concepts and philosophies. And in the end, most of the Libertarian party are Republicans with one single issue or axe to grind that the Republican party's religious fever would not let them think about letting people have freedom of choice on.
(This wasn't always true, in the 80s the party had some folks who were Anti-Reagan Republicans who didn't believe his administration's economics or foreign policy as their main issues but they've mostly died off by now).
This goes to another couple of points:
ReplyDelete1. The word libetarian has been coopted by douchecanoes. This isn't news.
2. There is a strong undercurrent of libetarian ideals in America, the problematic part is we're all libetarian in different ways.
The great thing about paternalistic libetarianism is you can please both, so long as there can be agreement on the best decision. Which is just as hard.
I'm with Joseph. I've held office in the Libertarian party and am still a card carrying member on paper. Realistically though, Libertarians still believe people should have to pay for bad choices, and that reduces to "stupid people should just be allowed to starve and die or live in barely sustainable poverty forever".
ReplyDeleteWe can do better than that.
And don't even get me started on how they have no valuation of anything related to children, mothers (who do valuable work), and granting equal opportunites to future generations.
The moment libertarians pitch a viable level playing field policy idea for all children, they might get me back.
I'm not certain what position is being made that is different from any I'd claim.
ReplyDelete