×

Allow People To Make Bad Decisions

Everyone needs food, water, protection from the weather, transportation, and other such things. Everyone has self-interest, that is, the decisions that one makes are based on the expectation that the resulting circumstances will be better in some way than before. Though everyone has a different set of assumptions based on experience, education, and culture that informs their decisions and filters new information, they have a similar framework on which to hang them.

Yet, out of all of the billions of people who have lived, now or previously, no two are identical. Even an identical twin with the same genetic code cannot possibly have all of the experiences as the other twin or twins. They may be very similar, but they are unique and individual. Nobody knows what they know or don’t know. The randomness of life and the different sets of eyes, ears, taste, touch, smells and individual intellect ensures that no two people are alike.

Everyone needs food, but there are literally millions of possible ways to satisfy hunger. Everyone needs water to survive even a few days, but it can come from a community well, a plastic bottle, an in-home faucet, as milk, beer, or the nearly unlimited forms or liquid refreshment. So, in spite of need, filling it is subject to choice. Each option, however, comes with costs and benefits peculiar to the individual’s circumstances. The costs and benefits of any selection depend on the assumptions built into the individual’s mental framework.

That framework for understanding doesn’t necessarily reflect reality in its entirety, and, in fact, it is quite rare that any individual’s view of the world comes close to an accurate depiction of it. Those rare people probably make good decisions that yield the results they desire. For others, their internal road map is faulty, and, like someone using a map of the wrong city, they will make wrong turns and get lost. People who keep testing reality and updating their internal framework or road map are likely to make progress. Those who wish reality would conform to their own desires likely set themselves up for disappointment and frustration.

Politicians and bureaucrats in a far-off city might be able to know what the human needs are, maybe even better than you or I, backed up by scientific evidence, but those same politicians and bureaucrats can never know what the individuals know. They can never comprehend their mental frameworks. They can’t possibly know the trade offs of costs and benefits that people would make in their own particular circumstances, at any particular moment

Even the most highly-developed artificial intelligence would not be able to make decisions for millions of people, because those decisions often involve conflicting interests, and the trade offs that people make are dynamic. Such an artificial intelligence would have to know the contents of every brain, as well as the framework of understanding of all people to be able to make the trade offs. Even if that were the case and the machine would make the same decisions as the individuals, why not just let people make their own decisions. If the machine would make different decisions from the individuals, then it is the same bureaucratic arrogance as the Soviet central planners who impose their own will on the population.

As long as individuals don’t kill or physically injure others, as long as they don’t take stuff that doesn’t belong to them, as long as they don’t use force, fraud, or coercion to compel others to do what they want, people should be free to make their own choices, even if those choices are mistakes and the person ultimately regrets it. Those bad choices are how people learn to make good choices.

Newsletter

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *
   

Starting at $4.62/week.

Subscribe Today