Becker sobre la prohibición de las grasas trans

Gary Becker hace una crítica de las medidas paternalistas que se están implementando en varias grandes ciudadades estadounidenses (Nueva York, Boston, San Francisco) para reducir el consumo de comida alta en grasas: prohibición de servir grasas trans en los restaurantes, obligación de publicar los contenidos calóricos de los productos etc.

Requiring restaurants to post calorie content of foods will have a negligible effect on demand for these foods because, as I argue above, consumers are buying these foods not mainly because they are ignorant of the effects on weight, but because of cheapness, convenience, and taste. Banning fast food restaurants would have an effect by eliminating their convenience. Still, substitutes would develop, such as prepared foods in supermarkets, or fast foods served not in chains but in individually owned restaurants (hostility to food chains is also partly responsible for the growth of legislation against them). Maybe eventually some of these substitutes would be banned too. Such continuing extensions of the power of government are a very unattractive prospect. Given all the ineptitude in government regulation (...) I believe it is better to tolerate some mistakes by consumers in their choice of foods.