Anthony Randazzo on the Case Against Libertarian Paternalism
Selling a big gulp Dr. Pepper can land you in court, but a Diet Coke is just fine? That would have been the law of the Big Apple had Mayor Michael Bloomberg's now kyboshed attempt to "nudge" New Yorkers away from sugary drinks been successful. 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, writes Anthony Randazzo. 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.