The ongoing debate at Cato Unbound on soft paternalism has focused a lot on the issue of slippery slopes. There are two directions one can slide down a slippery slope: an increasing scope of paternalism, and an increasing degree of paternalism. The danger of the former is captured in Glen Whitman’s example of smoking. First they banned it on airplanes, then it was bars and restaurants, and now it is increasingly in all public places.
The other slippery slope occurs when the presence of paternalism in area A makes it more likely in area B. This type of slippery slope is evident in the spread of regulation from sugar, which is becoming more popular, to salt, which is on the horizon:
Citing 40 years of failed efforts to voluntarily reduce the amount of salt in food, an advisory panel Tuesday recommended that the government regulate sodium for the…
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Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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