The Natural Logic for Statists

Free Exchange slams essentially collectivist thinking here.

“Why exactly is obesity a public health issue? Well, when, by force of law, you externalise responsibility for providing a good, such as health care, then the effects of all individual choices that affect the cost of providing that good for the individual are thereby transformed from internal to external effects. If you, like Mr Dubois, are in the grip of the blithe assumption that reducing negative externalities by raising the cost of the behaviour that causes them is simply what government does, then obviously my gluttony and sloth are public problems. Because public policy made them public problems! So, obviously, it’s up to the government to fiddle with prices to manipulate our behavior in order to minimise its impact on the tax-financed national budget.”

Reminiscent of my own point here (in Danish).

Added: I wish people like Dubois (see original link) would try to (privately) convince people to change their behavior, instead of using the power of the state to force them to. As Free Exchange writes: such people are very paternalistic.

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