LTE: Nudging

I believe this is called cross-posting, but of course, I could be wrong. It's been known to happen.
05 March 2008

When Shove Comes to Push

In When Shove Comes to Push (Page D1, March 2 Boston Sunday Globe), Drake Bennett focuses on the interesting applications, rather than the abysmal implications of “nudging”. Endowing the government with “choice architecture” is a gross inversion of its sole purpose: the protection of individual rights. Nudging violates our individual rights while claiming to protect us – from ourselves! Touting that in limiting our choices the government will effectively protect us from our own stupid decisions, “nudge” enthusiasts hide their advocacy of an increasingly omnipotent government behind the euphemism of “libertarian paternalism”.

Nudging, they say, has the potential to make us all much happier – so long as we are willing to forgo our freedom of choice and individual rights.

Update: This LTE remained on my computer (and in some revised hard copies on my kitchen table). I never sent it, so it was never published. Now it's just a repetition of an earlier blog entry. Funny how that works.

Posted by LB at 10:58 AM
Labels: individual rights, nudging

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