Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

The do-gooders in government are not pleased that Americans prefer other foods to fresh vegetables. It was thought that providing information about the health benefits of vegetables would change eating habits. It has not. You can be sure that the do-gooders will turn next to manipulation, and, when that fails, to coercion, and, when that fails, to force. The paternalists in government do not trust people to run their own lives. To repeat: The progression is (1) persuasion, (2) manipulation, (3) coercion, (4) force. The end—getting people to eat what their betters believe they should eat—justifies the means.