Should We Ban Trans Fats?

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If they can imagine a kind of world that those choices would not be possible, they want to make the choices outlawed. So you have mandatory education so my grandfather in 1910 shouldn't have been allowed,. This person would argue, to drop out of school because that's a bad thing. And I think the economist answer is we don't know how to create that world in 1910. We didn’t know how to do it. What about the regret issue? Should we ban trans fats? A lot of these are often, some of these are so-called do-goodisms. It's somebody pushing their own self-interest, cloaking it in kindness.

Mike Munger of Duke University talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the psychology, sociology, and economics of buying and selling. Why are different transactions that seemingly make both parties better off frowned on and often made illegal? In theory, all voluntary transactions should make both parties better off. But Munger argues that some transactions are more voluntary than others. Munger lists the attributes of a truly voluntary transaction, what he calls a euvoluntary transaction and argues that when transactions are not euvoluntary, they may be outlawed or seen as immoral. Related issues that are discussed include price gouging after a natural disaster, blackmail, sales of human organs, and the employment of low-wage workers.