lent example. Most people who smoke look at it as a choice they made that only affects their lungs, but smoking doesnt just affect the smokers body. Secondhand smoke kills more nonsmokers than firsthand smoke kills smokers. The choice to smoke becomes an addictive habit, which kills your autonomy. You do not have the choice to stop anymore. Paternalism is in place to look out for and enforce what is in our best interest, whether they are choices we would or would not make. If decisions we make now are likely to be regretted in the future and are more likely to be irreversible, paternalistic intervention is there to step in and aid the decision. For example, someone chooses to drop out of school at a young age. That person will eventually regret this decision because they will find it hard to get a job with limited education, and also find it virtually impossible to put themselves back through school with limited funds to do so. This situation is a justified situation for paternalism to step in. Paternalism is mainly used in large decisions in peoples lives, decisions that involve high stakes. The advantages of having paternalism in place is that in the long run, with paternalistic intervention, our decisions will be better made. Paternalism is used by officials when make public policy. They look at your surface preferences and judge them on a standard of deeper preferences when configuring limitations and freedoms. There are, however, four types of preferences that prevent paternalistic intervention. They are relevant, settled, preferred, and your own preferences. As long as officials are convinced you are acting on one or all of those preferences, they have no right to step in. The disadvantages to paternalism is that most feel that they should be able to make their own decisions without having any interference. Paternalism is looked down upon when someone feels that their best interest was in the choice they made but...
