The First Department of the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court has ruled 5-0 against NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s soda ban, in the case of In re New York Statewide Coalition of Hispanic Chambers of Commerce, et al. v. The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, et al. (The Hispanic […]
Archive | Paternalism
New York Judge Nixes Super-Size Soda Ban
A state court judge has voided New York City’s much discussed (and much derided) ban on the sale of large sugary drinks, the New York Post reports. The ban was slated to take effect tomorrow. Due to the judge’s ruling, however, NY health inspectors won’t have to run around testing drink sizes and coffee sellers […]
Does any government have the legitimate power to ban medical marijuana?
By David Kopel on December 10, 2012 10:25 pm in Constitutional History, Constitutional Law, Constitutional Theory, Criminal Law, Growth of Government, Paternalism
Ernst Freund was one of the Founding Fathers of progressive constitutionalism. His 1904 book The Police Power: Public Policy and Constitutional Rights argued for a vastly expanded understanding of the police power. (The police power, broadly defined, is a government’s power to regulate health, safety, welfare and morals. It is distinct from other government powers, […]
“Failure: Why We Need It”
That was the provocative title of a seminar earlier this month organized by the Istituto Bruno Leoni, Italy’s free market think tank. The event was the IBL’s 9th annual Mises Seminar. As is common at multinational seminars in Europe, the event and the papers were in English, which is today’s lingua franca among well-educated Europeans. My favorite […]
Researchers Whose Work Was Cited to Justify Bloomberg’s Large Soda Ban Explain Why it Won’t Work
In trying to justify his proposed regulation banning large-size sodas, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg cited the work of economists Brian Wansink and David Just. In this recent Atlantic article, Wansink and Just explain that he got their work wrong: New York City’s mayor proposed a restaurant ban for any soft drink over 16-ounces. The […]
Do Government Subsidies for Health Care Justify Paternalistic Soda Pop Regulations?
NYU law professor Rick Hills argues that New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s ban on large soda pop servings is justified by the existence of government subsidies for health care: I am inclined to think that denouncing Bloomberg’s proposal as Orwellian is like ridiculing the Food, Drug, & Cosmetic Act as a Stalinist plot or attacking […]
Funniest Comment on the New York Times online
News item: Bloomberg Backs Plan to Limit Arrests for Marijuana ALBANY — Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said on Monday that he would support a proposal by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo to significantly curb the number of people who could be arrested for marijuana possession as a result of police stops. Best reader comment: Just don’t get […]
The FDA’s Unhealthy Salt Obsession
Is too much salt bad for you? That used to be the conventional wisdom, but more recent scientific research has suggested the emphasis on salt is misplaced. No matter. As Walter Olson notes, the Food and Drug Administration appears to be moving ahead with plans to force gradual reductions in the salt content of processed […]
Steven Levitt’s “Daughter Test” for Paternalistic Policies
Famous economist Steven Levitt, coauthor of Freakonomics, recently described his “daughter test” for assessing paternalistic policies: Most of the time there is broad agreement as to which activities should be made criminal. Almost no one thinks that theft or violence against innocents is socially acceptable. There are, however, a few activities that fall into a […]
Broccoli, Slippery Slopes, and the Individual Mandate
By Ilya Somin on January 25, 2011 3:26 pm in Federalism, Health Care, Individual Mandate, Libertarian Paternalism, Paternalism
Opponents of the constitutionality of the individual mandate have emphasized that upholding the mandate would give Congress the power to mandate virtually anything, including forcing people to eat broccoli. Northwestern law professor Andrew Koppelman appears to agree, but argues that this slippery slope is nothing to worry about: One of the most rhetorically effective arguments […]
No Soda for You!
The WSJ reports: Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Gov. David Paterson have asked the federal government to bar New York City food-stamp recipients from using the benefit to buy sugary drinks, an effort to determine if the move would decrease obesity and diabetes problems. The request, sent late Wednesday to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, could […]
The FDA to Target Salt
From today’s Washington Post: The Food and Drug Administration is planning an unprecedented effort to gradually reduce the salt consumed each day by Americans, saying that less sodium in everything from soup to nuts would prevent thousands of deaths from hypertension and heart disease. The initiative, to be launched this year, would eventually lead to […]
Does the Supposedly Superior Expertise of Regulators Justify Libertarian Paternalism?
By Ilya Somin on April 19, 2010 9:56 pm in Libertarian Paternalism, Paternalism, Political Ignorance, Public Choice, Uncategorized
Some of the commenters on my last two posts criticizing libertarian paternalism accuse me of ignoring the possibility that such paternalism is justified by the supposedly superior expertise of government regulators. Actually, I have addressed this point in several previous posts, such as here and here. However, readers can’t be blamed for not taking the […]
Richard Thaler Responds to Critics of Libertarian Paternalism
Economist Richard Thaler, a leading advocate of libertarian paternalism, has briefly responded to some of the points I made in my most recent post on that subject. In that post, I argue that advocates of libertarian paternalism implicitly rely on the assumption that regulators and voters are rational, while consumers and other private sector actors […]
The Double Standard of Libertarian Paternalism
By Ilya Somin on April 15, 2010 12:35 am in Libertarian Paternalism, Libertarianism, Paternalism, Political Ignorance
Cato Unbound has an excellent symposium on “libertarian paternalism,” the theory that argues that government should intervene to protect people against cognitive biases that lead them to make decisions that ultimately reduce their ability to achieve their own objectives. Advocates of libertarian paternalism argue that their approach is different from and superior to traditional paternalism, […]