There is an interesting discussion between Gary Becker and Richard Posner on The Becker-Posner Blog (posts for 14th January 2007) about allegedly liberal arguments for paternalism (sounds a bit like being forced to be free to me). The supposed difficulty for those who take John Stuart Mill's arguments in On Liberty seriously is that recent research has shown that in some cases individuals may not have enough information to make the decisions that help them pursue their interests. Libertarian paternalists argue that in such cases government regulations should be imposed to help individuals pursue the interests they would have had if they had had better information.
Becker is very clear on the point that Mill's position doesn't rest on any misguided view that the individual is infallible about what will make his or her life go best. Rather for the classical libertarian the process of making one's own mistakes in the long term leads to 'more self-reliant, competent, and independent individuals' (Becker). The claim is that the process of making choices results in people who are more cabable of making good choices even though some of the choices made along the way may be bad.
For Your Own Good - essay on paternalism written by members of the Humanist Philosophers Group
Comments