PHIL 270 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Libertarian Paternalism, Status Quo Bias, Pareto Efficiency
4 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Business Ethics
2.15 Lecture Notes – Brennan
· A lot of options – not necessarily better
· We actively prefer to have fewer choices because having more choices may lead to worse
consequences in ways that we have no control over
· Satz’s eaple: i the ase of organ markets
o In cases of extreme poverty, adding the additional option of the organ market may make you
worse off – even if the option is rational, will make you systematically worse off in the long run
o Ex: women in rural villages in India
▪ Financial dependence on husbands
▪ Do’t hae the sae legal rights as e – even if they have legal rights, social norms in
rural villages are powerful
▪ If the or is that oe sarifie orgas eause the do’t hae their o
independent wealth
▪ Background conditions are entirely responsible for the moral reactions – certain people
are especially liable to selling their organs as collateral – we should change the legal
institutions and norms to the extent it is possible
▪ Reinforces status inequality (she in rural India will not be better off) – argument is
confined to given current conditions now – if women in India were to have educations
and have equal status as men, her argument would not be as relevant
· Payday loans – why not let the poor in the US to sell their organs instead of payday loans?
o Reversibility – hair v. organs
▪ But we also allow people to make other types of irreversible decisions!
▪ Selling eggs, tattoos
▪ Inconsistency
· Using other ways of increasing access to organs without markets – nudging
o Libertarian paternalism – allow people to opt in or opt out of organ donations
o Default opt in, rather than default opt out
o Libertarian benevolence
o Status quo bias, deference to authority – reasons for the default bias
Brennan
· Market does not introduce new wrongness, just reveals pre-existing wrongness or makes it easier to
get that wrongness
· Anti-commodification theorists are misplaced in some of their objections
· Pg. 17: Sometimes, a market can make a problem worse by making something more available
o A market for murder – price on deed, lowers the cost of murdering, will increase the number of
murders
· Pg. 28: Market in prostitution might be bad
o Bad if it results in bad consequences
o Wrong to the extent that the consequences are bad
· Pg. 47: Anti-commodification arguments
o Harm to others
o Rights violation – if you are a non-utilitarian
o Exploitation – qualified (wrongful exploitation)
o Misallocation – objections to markets to the extent that they result in unfair allocations (even if
there is a Pareto improvement, there are some moral objections)
o Paternalism – allos ou to sell thigs that are’t ours to sell
▪ Kidneys – not understanding the consequences, not thinking clearly, etc.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
