Sludge: The mind of a regulator — VOICES for REASON

First there was the drug czar, then the energy czar, and (possibly) a car czar. Now we can add to the list: Cass Sunstein, Obama’s new “federal regulatory czar.”

Sunstein is a well-known law professor and author of numerous books, including his recent work Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness, co-authored with Richard Thaler. (Eric Daniels has a devastating review of the book in the Fall 2008 issue of The Objective Standard.)

If you want a hint of what Sunstein brings to the table, consider his proposal for what he called “fairness-doctrine-type mandates on Web sites.”

[The Internet Fairness Doctrine proposal] suggested that it’s reasonable for government to think about creating the equivalent of linking obligations and pop-ups, so that you’d be on one site–say, a conservative site–and there’d be a pop-up from a liberal site.

Not to worry, though. It turns out that Sunstein eventually saw the light and decided his proposal was–his word–”stupid.”

Was it because he came to see that the government shouldn’t be forcing Americans to promote ideas they disagree with? Not at all. Rather, he backtracked, saying “the Internet is too difficult to regulate.”

Welcome to the mind of a regulator: I will decide what’s best for individuals. If I think conservatives don’t read enough liberal articles, I’ll devise some clever way to make them. Sure, sometimes I’ll come up with “stupid” ideas, but that’s okay. I’ll just wave my regulatory wand the next day and try something else.