Overview

Eating sugary food, drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes are legal activities. But politicians still use the law to discourage them. They raise their price, prohibit or limit their advertisement, restrict where they can be sold and consumed, and sometimes ban them outright. These politicians thereby violate John Stuart Mill’s famous principle that people should be free to do whatever they like, provided they harm no one but themselves. Why? What can justify these paternalistic policies? Killjoys reviews the full range of justifications that have been offered: from the idea that people are too irrational to make sensible decisions to the idea that they are effectively compelled by advertising to harm themselves. The author, Christopher Snowdon, exposes the logical or factual errors that undermine each purported justification. He thus provides a comprehensive critique of the health paternalism that has been adopted by governments around the world.

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9780255367493

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Christopher Snowdon is the Head of Lifestyle Economics at the Institute of Economic Affairs. His research focuses on social freedoms, prohibition and policy-based evidence. He is a regular contributor to the Spectator Health blog and often appears on TV and radio discussing social and economic issues. Snowdon is the editor of the 'Nanny State Index' and the author of four books: 'Selfishness, Greed and Capitalism' (2015), 'The Art of Suppression' (2011), 'The Spirit Level Delusion' (2010) and 'Velvet Glove, Iron Fist' (2009). He has also written more than a dozen reports for the Institute of Economic Affairs including 'Drinking, Fast and Slow', 'The Proof of the Pudding: Denmark’s Fat Tax Fiasco', 'Cheap as Chips, Sock Puppets and Closing Time: Who’s Killing the British Pub?'

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