Bad choice?

Re “Designing better choices,” Opinion, April 2

Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein miss a big point about libertarianism when using it conjoined with paternalism: “Voluntarily” doing one thing versus a second thing is not “free choice.” They forget the other available choice: I don’t want to have to make a choice. If the institution setting the choices is private, then I may choose not to do business with it. But when a public institution is setting the choices, I cannot avoid having to choose. That is not liberty; it is paternalism.

Forrest Bonner

Huntington Beach

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The authors neglected to answer the most important questions: Who gets to appoint their proposed “choice architects” and to decide what kinds of “nudges” these “architects” give us? Are they elected? Does their governing depend on the consent of the governed? Are they required to implement the will of the people? Or are they “big brothers” empowered to give whatever “nudges” they like, outside any controls of the democratic process? Until those questions are answered, we cannot make any informed judgment about the proposal.

Ira Chernus

Professor of Religious Studies

University of Colorado

Boulder