"History is a wonderful thing, if only it was true"
-Tolstoy

Sunday, April 09, 2006

Big big caution ... Big Brother knows what's good for you

Soft paternalism | The state is looking after you | Economist.com:
Apr 6th 2006
From The Economist print edition

"A new breed of paternalists is seeking to promote virtue and wisdom by default. Be wary"

Some may makes "sense"
Such as ...
"For instance, in many countries plenty of workers fail to enrol in pension schemes and suffer as a result. The reason is not that they have decided against joining, but that they haven't decided at all—and enrolling is cumbersome. So why not make enrolling in the scheme the default option, still leaving them the choice to opt out? Studies have shown this can nearly double the enrolment rate. Lord Turner, head of Britain's Pensions Commission, is the latest soft paternalist to recommend such a scheme (see article)."

OK, this is a model that I can accept, esp. if it allows people to provide for themselves and not turn to the state (everyone else) to bail them out in their old age.

This topic was discussed at PCForum
Gary Bolles covered some of it here :
Conferenza: Barry Schwartz: The Paradox of Choice

and here

Conferenza: Blind Choice & Intelligent Design

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