This July-September, I ran a book club on Rizzo and Whitman’s magisterial Escaping Paternalism. Now I’m pleased to announce that Rizzo and Whitman have won a much-deserved Szasz Prize for Outstanding Contributions to the Cause of Civil Liberties. From the prize announcement:
The professional Szasz award goes to Mario J. Rizzo, a professor of economics at New York University, and Glen Whitman, a professor of economics at California State University, Northridge. Their book Escaping Paternalism: Rationality, Behavioral Economics, and Public Policy was described by economist-blogger Bryan Caplan as “an unbelievably learned, thoughtful, fair, wise, and inspired critique of applied behavioral economics in general and libertarian paternalism (a.k.a. “nudge”) in particular.”
Casual readers may wonder, “What on Earth does Escaping Paternalism have to do with civil liberties?”
The answer: Paternalism is a top – possibly the top – argument for violating civil liberties. Do you really want to let people go to hell in their own way? Left to their own devices, lots of people will. So what should we do about the rest? Force them to do the right thing for their own good, of course.
This is a classic Christian argument against religious toleration: Coercion can save heretics from hellfire. And the same goes for the metaphorical hells of drug addiction, obesity, alcoholism, impulsivity, etc. By exposing the deep intellectual flaws of paternalism, Rizzo and Whitman ipso facto stand up for individuals’ freedom to live their own lives in their own way.
As a former Szasz prize winner myself, I’m delighted to welcome Rizzo and Whitman to the club. Bravo.
P.S. If you’re unfamiliar with Szasz’s mind-bending work, start here.
READER COMMENTS
Anonymous
Dec 30 2020 at 4:40pm
I have a healthy skepticism of psychiatry, but I haven’t found Szasz to be persuasive. Previous comments of mine criticizing Szasz have been removed by moderators.
[Your comment from 2016 was removed for being ad hominem, which is against our comment policies. It was not removed for being a critique of anything Szasz said or wrote, or anything specifically discussed in the post. This was explained to you in email as well as in a subsequent comment you made complaining at the time that your comment was removed. If you wish to discuss this further, feel free to email me at webmaster@econlib.org.– Econlib Ed.]
Thomas Hutcheson
Dec 31 2020 at 10:59am
I do not think paternalism is the source of policies that Libertarians mainly object to.
Transfer payments: Taxing some people to give money or things to other people (Social Security, ACA) is not paternalism.
Externalities: Taxing or regulating transactions that harm parties not party to the transaction (a tax on net CO2 emissions) is not paternalism
Public Goods: Public provision of good or services that people would otherwise have to procure for themselves (less risk that a food or drug they purchase may be harmful) is not paternalism
Regulation to shift benefits and costs between parties (minimum wages) is not paternalism.
Taxation/regulation of “bads” (tobacco consumption but not smoking bans in public places) is paternalism.
Comments are closed.