Behavioural Economics & Paternalism Critique | The Swift Half Show

On this episode of The Swift Half with Snowdon, host Christopher Snowdon is joined by Erik W. Matson, Senior Research Fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. They discuss Matson's new book "New Paternalism Meets Older Wisdom", a collection of essays critiquing the "new paternalism" philosophy of behavioural economics published by the IEA. Matson explains how the new paternalism, exemplified by the "nudge" theory, claims to help people better achieve their own stated preferences through choice architecture. However, he argues in the book that it's very difficult to truly know people's authentic wants and that these nudge policies often impose a narrow folk theory of what's "good" for people.
Drawing insights from philosophers like David Hume and Adam Smith, Matson's essays contend that human welfare is a dynamic process of "becoming" rather than satisfying a static set of preferences. He cautions that attempts to override people's real-world choices in the name of their "true" selves can lead down an oppressive path. The conversation touches on issues like time inconsistency in decision-making, the inevitability of choice defaults, and the validity of stated preferences versus revealed behaviour.
Matson makes a philosophical case in the book for respecting individual autonomy and experiments in living. He argues policymakers should be wary of paternalistically deciding people's ends versus merely assisting chosen means. The discussion covers the potential dangers of overriding society's diversity of values and conceptions of the good life based on simplistic survey data or elite presumptions of what people "really" want deep down.
0:00 Intro
0:32 Matson's background and new book "New Paternalism Meets Older Wisdom"
2:12 Explaining the "new paternalism" and nudge theory
4:40 Critique of knowing people's "true" preferences
7:28 Insights from Hume and Smith on dynamic human welfare
9:56 Time inconsistency in decision-making
12:12 Inevitability of choice defaults
14:02 Validity of stated preferences vs revealed behavior
16:35 Respecting autonomy and experiments in living
18:22 Policymaker paternalism about means vs ends
20:35 Overriding diversity of values and conceptions of the good life
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[@wiggylwogglywoo9965]

Is it not less weird to just walk in to the room, rather than crawl on the floor hoping to not be noticed lol.