Why It's OK to Make Bad Choices

If we are kind people, we care about others, including others who tend to hurt themselves. We all have friends or family members who have potential but squander or even ruin their lives from things like drug abuse, unwise spending decisions, or poor dietary habits.

Concern for others often motivates us to endorse laws or private interventions meant to keep people from harming themselves even if that¿s what they want to do in the moment. However, it is far from clear that such paternalistic measures are, on net, benign, and they tend to violate an understanding that we should let adults make their own decisions.

In this little book, William Glod argues that it¿s OK to allow people to make bad choices. It¿s OK even if those choices risk causing a lot of harm. Most defenders of paternalism agree that some bad choices are not harmful enough to require laws to stop them. However, Glod goes further. He argues that some people might want ¿ and dese