Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Overcoming Bias Commenter's avatar

Robin,

(Re: a law requiring all people to carry umbrellas) "But a person who understands the chances of rain and the costs and benefits of carrying or not is in a good position to make the choice for themself."

I totally agree. The problem is all the dumb people who can't figure out to carry an umbrella or not. Now we can argue whether a paternalistic regulation would be good. I suspect most people would agree that it was a bad idea since having everyone lug around umbrellas on sunny days would be ridiculous.

All I want to say is that your one sentence: "To argue for paternalism regarding self-control, one has to assume we are biased to underestimate our self-control problems." doesn't seem to be strictly correct; you need to replace "we" with "some of us". One can make a logically consistent argument in favor of paternalism based on the few dummies.

Expand full comment
Robin Hanson's avatar

Paul, I just agreed that "systematic underestimation of self-control problems [is not] necessary to have a market that fails to supply sufficient commitment mechanisms." As I said, regulation could induce more mechanisms if the market failed to provide them.

Expand full comment
34 more comments...

No posts