Richard H Thaler - Misbehaving- The Making of Behavioral Economics (epub)

choice,” a term both more accurate and less politically charged. When dealing
with Humans, words matter.
________________
* While we thought the term was perfectly logical, not everyone agreed. One law professor wrote a
comment on our paper titled “Libertarian Paternalism Is an Oxymoron” (Mitchell, 2005). I wanted to post a
reply online that would have no text; it would only consist of the three-word title “No It’s Not.” Cass
convinced me that this would not be helpful.
† Most states wisely combine this policy with a “first person consent” law that stipulates that if the donor
should die, his or her wishes should be followed, sparing family members any obligation to make difficult
choices in traumatic times.
‡ He might have shared this bit of wisdom with President Obama, whose health care law has a very
unpopular feature that is called a “mandate.” Because the law forbids insurance companies from
discriminating against people with preexisting conditions, it needed to have some provision to prevent
people from waiting until they get sick or have an accident to buy insurance, and mandating coverage was
chosen as the solution to this problem. But there were other ways to achieve this goal. For example, I would
favor a combination of automatic enrollment (with opt-out) plus a provision that anyone who opts out of
insurance cannot buy a policy for a specified period of time, such as three years.