NEW YORK — Just how far would a government go to protect us from ourselves?
In New York City – which already bans smoking in public parks in the name of public health and bars artificial trans fats from food served in restaurants – Mayor Michael Bloomberg now wants to stop sales of large sodas and other sugary drinks, in a bid to battle obesity. But in a country where fries have been equated with freedom, Bloomberg's proposal raises super-sized questions about government's role in shaping and restricting individual choices. What's next, a Twinkie purge?
"The idea of the state stepping in and treating adults essentially as children and trying to protect them for their own good, as opposed to the good of others, that's been with us for as long as we've been around, as long as we've had governments," says Glen Whitman, an economist at California State University-Northridge who is a critic of paternalistic public policy.-[Full Article]
