June 13, 2008

'Libertarian Paternalism' and Health-Care Reform

To the Editor:

In "The New Paternalism" (The Chronicle Review, May 9), Evan R. Goldstein explains the essence of Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness, by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein. As Goldstein describes it, a nudge is "any noncoercive alteration in the context in which people make decisions" and "an approach to designing social and economic policies that incorporates an understanding of people's cognitive limitations." The underlying philosophy,