Paternalism

Say you think the falsehood of the homo economicus model provides some kind of special basis for a new kind of paternalism. Does that mean you think people up to now have been making a hash out of their lives? Maybe you do, which is why you think people continue to smoke or get really, [...]

I’m trying to get clear on what Sunstein and Thaler mean, and it’s not easy, since they basically make up their own private language, and then act puzzled by the idea that some people might be a little confused by what they have in mind.
So a “choice architect” is basically anyone that organizes “the context [...]

In comments below, Berger asks this question in response to my concession of the non-neutrality of choice architecture, (which was in fact what I had in mind when posing the cryptic “dissertation topic” question about liberal neutrality at the bottom of the post):
It seems to me that if you concede that there is no such [...]

Everything is what it is. Sex work is different from carpentry and it is different from surgery. It is like carpentry and surgery in that it is a way of renting one’s body. It is like surgery in requiring some hardening and compartmentalization. It is not like surgery in that it involves a different set [...]

I wanted to reply to Ross’s post on the so-called Wilkinson-Howley worldview, but I had to go to L.A. for a little political theory conference at UCLA, where I am now. Let’s see if I can clarify a few things. Ross writes:
Given the premises of the pro-prostitution worldview, what’s so abusive and damaging about incest [...]