Gilles Saint-Paul
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691128177
- eISBN:
- 9781400838899
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691128177.003.0012
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, History of Economic Thought
This chapter explores how post-utilitarianism attempts to regulate individual actions and interactions with others affect the more impersonal and large-scale interactions that take place in markets. ...
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This chapter explores how post-utilitarianism attempts to regulate individual actions and interactions with others affect the more impersonal and large-scale interactions that take place in markets. Paternalistic governments can intervene in markets by imposing price restrictions on transactions. Such restrictions “work” because prices are a statistical signal that may be used by the government to infer the likelihood that a mistake has been made as well as the size of that mistake. By regulating prices, the government is thus screening transactions in such a way that those that go through are, on average, less plagued by mistakes. Such interventions again run counter to the liberal view that people should be responsible for their own choices, but they are welfare-improving from a utilitarian viewpoint.Less
This chapter explores how post-utilitarianism attempts to regulate individual actions and interactions with others affect the more impersonal and large-scale interactions that take place in markets. Paternalistic governments can intervene in markets by imposing price restrictions on transactions. Such restrictions “work” because prices are a statistical signal that may be used by the government to infer the likelihood that a mistake has been made as well as the size of that mistake. By regulating prices, the government is thus screening transactions in such a way that those that go through are, on average, less plagued by mistakes. Such interventions again run counter to the liberal view that people should be responsible for their own choices, but they are welfare-improving from a utilitarian viewpoint.
Lisa S. Nelson
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- August 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780262014779
- eISBN:
- 9780262289689
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262014779.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Technology and Society
The use of biometric technology for identification has gone from Orwellian fantasy to everyday reality. This technology, which verifies or recognizes a person's identity based on physiological, ...
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The use of biometric technology for identification has gone from Orwellian fantasy to everyday reality. This technology, which verifies or recognizes a person's identity based on physiological, anatomical, or behavioral patterns (including fingerprints, retina, handwriting, and keystrokes) has been deployed for such purposes as combating welfare fraud, screening airplane passengers, and identifying terrorists. The accompanying controversy has pitted those who praise the technology's accuracy and efficiency against advocates for privacy and civil liberties. This book investigates the complex public responses to biometric technology. The author uses societal perceptions of this particular identification technology to explore the values, beliefs, and ideologies that influence public acceptance of technology. Drawing on her own extensive research with focus groups and a national survey, she finds that considerations of privacy, anonymity, trust and confidence in institutions, and the legitimacy of paternalistic government interventions, are extremely important to users and potential users of the technology. The author examines the long history of government systems of identification and the controversies they have inspired; the effect of the information technology revolution and the events of September 11, 2001; the normative value of privacy (as opposed to its merely legal definition); the place of surveillance technologies in a civil society; trust in government and distrust in the expanded role of government; and the balance between the need for government to act to prevent harm and the possible threat to liberty in the government's actions.Less
The use of biometric technology for identification has gone from Orwellian fantasy to everyday reality. This technology, which verifies or recognizes a person's identity based on physiological, anatomical, or behavioral patterns (including fingerprints, retina, handwriting, and keystrokes) has been deployed for such purposes as combating welfare fraud, screening airplane passengers, and identifying terrorists. The accompanying controversy has pitted those who praise the technology's accuracy and efficiency against advocates for privacy and civil liberties. This book investigates the complex public responses to biometric technology. The author uses societal perceptions of this particular identification technology to explore the values, beliefs, and ideologies that influence public acceptance of technology. Drawing on her own extensive research with focus groups and a national survey, she finds that considerations of privacy, anonymity, trust and confidence in institutions, and the legitimacy of paternalistic government interventions, are extremely important to users and potential users of the technology. The author examines the long history of government systems of identification and the controversies they have inspired; the effect of the information technology revolution and the events of September 11, 2001; the normative value of privacy (as opposed to its merely legal definition); the place of surveillance technologies in a civil society; trust in government and distrust in the expanded role of government; and the balance between the need for government to act to prevent harm and the possible threat to liberty in the government's actions.
