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The revealed preferences of everything eventually goes to hedonistic thinking. That’s how we get people who’d rather get welfare than a job, obesity, partying, overspending, and so on. I think society as a whole quite often needs to enforce cultural norms and values that counteract the tendency to choose the hedonistic option or the one that requires the least sacrifice. The revealed preference of most men is not to work dirty and dangerous jobs. They do so if necessary because society will deem an able bodied man with no job as a loser. Even things that are liked by men who don’t want to work gets stigmatized heavily. The same thing should be in play for women in this instance. A woman who doesn’t want children is a loser as much as a man sitting home playing COD instead of going to work. And I’d say the same of obesity. Shaming people who overeat and don’t exercise is a good thing. Shaming kids who would rather play than study is good as well. Shaming and shunning enforces social norms against various forms of hedonism. Within limits, hedonism is okay, but it’s still much better for everyone if people are shamed for not doing their duties.
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