Homines libenter quod volunt credunt
Posted in Government Gone Wild, Paternalism on Mar 15th, 2011
And then they came for the … incense and perfume! You cannot make this up” Yesterday I pointed to Portland’s pending ban on perfumes and colognes in city buildings, and noted that this is how bans on smoking in all public places began. Your turn, Nevada: Critics say a Nevada bill banning air fresheners and candles […]
Posted in Paternalism on Jan 31st, 2011
… the bath salts. I read this as I was trying to take two wimpy Sudafeds. Here is the last entry in the series. If Chuck gets his way, we’ll ban the salts, and then the burnouts will turn to some other household item to snort … and then after that one gets banned, they’ll […]
Posted in Paternalism, Unintended Consequences, Welfare State on Dec 2nd, 2010
Fatherhood.gov. It’s a effort of NRFC, which is a division of ACF which is an office of OFA which is a branch of HHS, which of course is a department of the Executive branch of the USA. Phew. Now that we have that out of the way. Here is what it does: NRFC Activities The […]
Posted in Paternalism on Nov 29th, 2010
“Libertarian” paternalists (it pains one to write this) make the strong claim that they only hope to improve the lives of people by “nudging” them to make better decisions than their irrational selves allow. Former commissioner of baseball (and evil Ephman) Fay Vincent makes an interesting point in tomorrow’s WSJ: that it is unusual that […]
Posted in Paternalism, Price System, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Nov 26th, 2010
Bob Frank was a professor of mine in graduate school at Cornell. He is perhaps most well known for his argument in favor of a progressive consumption and income tax. Why? He argues that much of the consumption of goods by the rich (and perhaps middle class too) takes place over status competition and “positional” […]
Posted in Paternalism on Nov 9th, 2010
And then they came for the Happy Meal toys. The ordinance, which would go into effect in December of next year, prohibits toy giveaways in fast-food children’s meals that have more than 640 milligrams of sodium, 600 calories or 35 percent of their calories from fat. The law also would limit saturated fats and trans […]
Posted in Government Thuggery, Paternalism on Aug 26th, 2010
As if the guys in Albany were elected just to prove everything I say on this site correct: State tax officials, under orders from cash-strapped Albany to ramp up their audit and compliance efforts, have begun to enforce one of the more obscure distinctions within the state’s sales tax law. In New York, the sale […]
Posted in Education, Paternalism, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Jun 16th, 2010
I do not believe that it is possible to be both a paternalist (libertarian or otherwise) and also be a strong advocate of government schooling. The argument that Thaler and Sunstein make in their book Nudge is that many individuals make bad decisions when left to their own devices because they are short-sighted, ill-informed, undisciplined, […]
Posted in Paternalism on Mar 12th, 2010
Salt to possibly be banned in restaurant cooking in NYC. Really. Here is the first in my series. My friend Art Carden writes: Quoth a Facebook friend, in linking this piece about a proposed ban on salt in New York restaurants: “Just when I thought people protesting the trans fat ban using a slippery slope […]
Posted in Paternalism on Feb 28th, 2010
Now, it is only safe to go sledding on groomed hills intended specifically for the purpose of sledding. This message came from our local Government school district: Sledding is an exciting pastime when you grow up in Upstate New York. We understand the draw to some of the hills on the PCSD grounds, but we […]