Mike Hudack

squashed:

Barack Obama has asked Cass Sunstein to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. If you’ve heard of a law professor (who isn’t Lawrence Lessig), it’s probably Cass Sunstein. Sunstein recently wrote a book called Nudge in which he advocated what he called a sort of “paternal libertarianism.” While the name should send shivers down libertarian’s spines, the idea is pretty good. The idea was to improve the default options. Choice is a great thing—but gathering the information to make an informed choice is costly. Suppose you’re buying a car and trying to decide which safety features you want. The dealer says, “For an extra $400 you can have side curtain airbags.” You might think you don’t need to spend that kind of money for anything unnecessary. On the otherhand, if the dealer says, “We could remove the sidecurtain airbags and save $400,” you might think that you’re unwilling to sell your safety and keep the airbags. Of course, in either case, you have the same choice and the result will be the same—but the way the information is presented could affect your decision.

I’m a huge fan of Cass Sunstein, and I’m very happy to see this appointment. Paternal libertarianism, whatever you may think of the name, is one of the best new ideas to come out of the academic community in many years. Cass Sunstein is also one of the smartest people to come out of the academic community in years.

This will, hopefully, be a very good thing.