Libertarian paternalism is becoming more widespread. For example, it uses the insights of behavioural economics to encourage people to make healthier choices without directly restricting their freedom. The federal government’s health promotion policies are a good example of this. Campaigns against smoking, alcohol consumption and unhealthy eating are designed to encourage people to make healthier choices.
The Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) runs numerous programmes to influence the population’s health behaviour and reduce diseases such as cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular disease, which account for a large proportion of health care costs or place a heavy burden on the health care system.
The crux of the matter is that even if it were proven that someone is deliberately shortening his or her life by drinking a few too many glasses or preferring to lie on the sofa instead of running on the track, a liberal state cannot impose rules on its citizens if they bear the consequences themselves.
For in a liberal state, the individual decides his own preferences. John Stuart Mill said 157 years ago that the community can only exercise power over the individual to prevent harm to others: “He cannot be compelled by law to do or to abstain from doing anything, because it would be better for him”.
