I think there’s a difference between a professional who has a legal responsibility to act in your interests, and the government, which doesn’t. It’s a matter of incentives, and I’m going to attach much more weight to my doctor saying that I should do something for my own good than from a government worker.
I confess the example was facetious. But I still can’t empathise with the intuitive dislike of interference. I understand there are pragmatic considerations (e.g. choosing a good doctor) but this seems to go beyond that to being a value in and of itself (thus the original example of it not being a utopia if its run by an interfering government).
I think there’s a difference between a professional who has a legal responsibility to act in your interests, and the government, which doesn’t. It’s a matter of incentives, and I’m going to attach much more weight to my doctor saying that I should do something for my own good than from a government worker.
Yes, it does. The difference is that you trust your doctor’s competence, I suspect.
A more important difference is that I have a lot more choice in my doctor than in my government.
I confess the example was facetious. But I still can’t empathise with the intuitive dislike of interference. I understand there are pragmatic considerations (e.g. choosing a good doctor) but this seems to go beyond that to being a value in and of itself (thus the original example of it not being a utopia if its run by an interfering government).
Well it won’t be. Without the threat of leaving the government has little incentive to intervene benevolently.