Abstract

Thomas Schelling has described how each of us is made up of conflicting impulses. The art of managing these impulses Schelling dubs ?egonomics?. The idea of egonomic calamity underlies paternalism (or, breaking convention, what I call ?parentalism'). The paper argues for laissez?faire in matters egonomic. The rationalizations I give for this libertarian sentiment are old ones, such as accentuating the dignity of the individual and letting the individual learn from example and from his own experience. Also I note, as H. L. Mencken did, that parentalist measures often have unhappy unintended consequences, sometimes are counter?productive, and rarely are borne of sincere good?will