Nudge and Ethics

The authors of Nudge do a great job of using behavioral economics to influence people's behavior.  They say that we cannot not influence behavior, because every way we word a question, organize a menu, and so forth is an influence in itself.  So, they argue, if you have to make a decision either way, why not use your newly-discovered toolbox full of nudges for the greater good? 

This position surprised me.  Previously, I was absolutely against a higher vertical power making decisions for those below them, "for their own good."  I thought, how could anyone make a better decision for someone than that person could themselves? But this semester, I've been second-guessing myself.  

I am in another class on development economics (I swear...this is related.).  We're reading a book called Poor Economics by Banerjee and Duflo (The Economist's Book of the Year in 2011). One of the author's main points in the book is that the poor remain poor because they have a lot more decisions to make than we do, and many of them are the important decisions "nobody should have to make."  For example, we in the USA don't have to really think about getting access to clean water.  We can get water from a tap and (with relatively high assurance) be confident that we won't get some terrible disease from it.  So, in many ways, a lot of the important "basic human right" decisions we don't have to make.

And thank goodness! If you had to spend every day filtering your water - think of the opportunity costs!  

So, how many of those "important decisions" should be made for us?   Who decides what is important enough?  

I think that the whole point behind their "paternalistic libertarianim" (two words that, quite frankly, seem too contradictory to be included in the same sentence). Nudge says the people should still absolutely be able to make their own decisions; no one is forcing them.  It's more a suggestion, than an actual rule. 

They certianly make a good case for showing us that these nudges will work.  But how far to take them....well that could change from person to person.  Welcome to the wonderful world of policy makers.