The Constraint of Morality

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James Buchanan said that we have the freedom to become the man that we want to become. Montesquieu in the spirit of the law has really spelled this out very clearly. And he said something that I think is a challenge to what you just said. There's a difference in modeling strategy that I tell students about and they find it, it's very challenging to think about.

Economist and author Michael Munger of Duke University talks about human wants and desires with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Human beings have desires about our desires. Can we change what we want? And how should economists and normal human beings think about doing the right thing, what we often call morality? Is acting morally self-interested behavior or is it possible to act selflessly?