The nanny state is in the news. A lot of people have been outraged by Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s effort to restrict soda sizes, recently overturned by a state court, and some people do not much like ...

Recent works by longtime intellectual antagonists Cass Sunstein (author of "Too Much Information") and Mario Rizzo and Glen Whitman (authors of "Escaping Paternalism") have a surprising amount of ...

The Manipulation of Choice: Ethics and Libertarian Paternalism, by Mark D. White, Palgrave Macmillian, 150 pages, $19.98. Selling a big gulp Dr. Pepper can land you in court, but a Diet Coke is just ...

In an op-ed in The New York Times titled "Three Cheers for the Nanny State," Sarah Conly, a philosophy professor at Bowdown College and author of Against Autonomy, dismisses principled concerns about ...

Should government "nudge" citizens to do what is in their self-interest? In his latest column, David Brooks runs through the arguments for and against "libertarian paternalism," summing them up as ...

Part of the aim of these essays is to engage with topics that may be challenging, reflecting the importance of having difficult conversations that advance progress. If we find that nothing we say ...

It is common for economists and neoliberals to argue for the use of relatively unrestricted vouchers in lieu of in-kind or highly circumscribed welfare payments. The rationale is that more choices ...

Nudging people toward better behavior through policy can be effective, but can face resistance if people feel their autonomy is threatened. Nudging people toward better behavior through policy can be ...

"Why haven't they scheduled your dad for his feeding tube placement? They just want another family conference." I sighed and told my mother we may have to fight. The physicians caring for my father ...

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