Is There Any Disagreement?

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I think that your disagreements are all imaginary, because you can't get around the fact that we're not forcing people to do anything. Buttey, they just didn't want to go down that path. They could have set up web sites, but they it very complicated,. and there's other rit things that we don't want to get into the details of that, because the formularies are stocastic. The point is that they could have made it in a way will make it easier for people to make good choices. That's all i'm about.

Richard Thaler of the U. of Chicago Graduate School of Business defends the idea of libertarian paternalism--how government might use the insights of behavioral economics to help citizens make better choices. Host Russ Roberts accepts the premise that individuals make imperfect choices but challenges Thaler on the likelihood that government, in practice, will improve matters. Along the way they discuss the design of Sweden's social security system, organ donations and whether professors at Cornell University are more or less like you and me.