Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Should Government Be Telling Us What To Do, Or Even "Nudging" Us In A Certain Direction?

Liberals do love their paternalism and compulsion, don't they?
This is a scientised version of original sin. And its eager adoption by today’s governments threatens social consequences that many might find troubling. A culture that believes its citizens are not reliably competent thinkers will treat those citizens differently to one that respects their reflective autonomy. Which kind of culture do we want to be? And we do have a choice. Because it turns out that the modern vision of compromised rationality is more open to challenge than many of its followers accept…

That, in a nutshell, is the problem of the practical application of behavioural economics to modern governance, in the form of nudge politics. Kahan argues against what he calls the ‘public irrationality thesis’: the idea that ordinary citizens act irrationally most of the time. He thinks this thesis is ungrounded, but the liberal-paternalist architects of nudge policy simply assume it – in, so they claim, our best interests.

5 comments:

Mike Thiac said...

Darren, a few months ago I posted A COP'S WATCH: Recycling and other rubbish.... on how the mayor of Houston, in her infinite wisdom, was really concerned about recycling. One sentence she said really pissed me off.

“A garbage fee actually allows us better control over the waste stream and how we incentivize people to recycle,” she said. “There are benefits there...”

Woman, I don't pay you to incentivize me. I pay you to pave the streets (they suck), keep the lights on, keep the cops and firemen on the street and other basic services. I don't need you to tell me recycle or else. There are reasons I won't be a resident of the city I patrol. Oh, in this city with serious budget problems she found the time and money to fly up to the UN Climate conference last week.

maxutils said...

This is really interesting to me, because as an economist? We have to assume that people ARE rational, and they make good, informed decisions according to them. So, If I like ice cream but hate tofu, and, given the choice between the two I choose tofu... then I'm irrational. Most people would not do that ... the problem comes in when government intrudes in to areas it shouldn't, or lays really important decisions on the hands of the uniformed ...who do not truly feel the impact of their votes ... like, Congress voting for Obamacare, which should not have been a governmental program, or californians voting for high speed rail ... since they were mostly not aware of the cost to them ... actually, entirely unaware, since it's ballooned. My only solution is ... fewer laws and less direct democracy.

Peggy U said...

Great article! Thanks for sharing it.

Darren said...

Mike, a *real* incentive would be to *pay me* to sort my garbage into recyclables and others. Guess no one's thought of that yet. Not enough opportunities for graft.

Mike Thiac said...

Actually Darren, people do get paid for it, just not the residents. It cost more to recycle than to open up another landfill. One thing we do have down in Texas is land for that.