In the end, what exactly do they deliver?
-- And here's Satel on what she learned working on mental health issues during a Capitol Hill fellowship:Hadn't quite thought of it that way...
My Hill experience gave me a startling insight: Liberals and conservatives seemed to have mirror-image approaches to paternalism. Liberals made intrusive laws for the competent while conservatives preferred to rely on individuals to make their own decisions.
Conversely, conservatives preferred intrusive laws for the incompetent to whom liberals applied a hands-off policy.
Funny though, the consistent inconsistency of the elastic left... as it hand-tailors supposed principles to grease the one-size-fits-all nanny state mentality.
Liberals were comfortable with public health paternalism: intrusive nonsmoking laws, taxes on unhealthy products, strict risk-averse EPA and FDA regulations...h/t to SDA
...yet, when a person was incoherent, defecating in the streets, or freezing a limb off in the park, then -- and only then -- did the principles of autonomy apply.
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