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Designing better choices

Libertarian paternalism gives you options while achieving society's goals.

April 02, 2008|Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein, Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein teach at the University of Chicago and are the authors of "Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness."

* If we want to respond to the recent problems in the mortgage market, and do something about credit cards and loans in general, we might design disclosure policies that ensure consumers can see exactly what they are paying and make easy comparisons among the possible options.

We find ourselves these days mired in political battles that pit laissez faire capitalism, with its reliance on unrestricted free markets, against heavily regulated capitalism, which favors government mandates and bans in an effort to ensure "good" outcomes. But this opposition is false and misleading. Any system of free markets will include some kind of choice architecture, and that means libertarian paternalism can offer a real "third way" around the battleground.


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The most important social goals are often best achieved not through mandates and bans but with gentle nudges. In countless domains, applying libertarian paternalism offers the most promising alternative to the tired skirmishing in the increasingly unproductive fight between the left and the right.

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