… is from pages 313 of Mario Rizzo’s and Glen Whitman’s important 2020 book, Escaping Paternalism: Rationality, Behavioral Economics, and Public Policy:
Furthermore, legislators and regulators still face strong externalities despite their choices more often [than voters’ choices] being decisive. They face relatively low costs for making poor regulatory decisions that affect other people, whereas private citizens face relatively high costs for making poor personal decisions that mainly affect themselves. As a result, private decision-makers have stronger incentives than public decision-makers to acquire information and work to overcome their behavioral biases.
DBx: Why is this reality – which seems to me to be both undeniable and very important – largely ignored by all but classical liberals and libertarians in discussions and debates over government interventions?