4 Seniors and Squalor To what extent are we willing to allow parentalist13 stances by our government into our lives? Should reason, and our fealty to it, blind us to the human position of “unreason”? Should we stoke the tendency to address “undesirables” through judicial and legislative exercise, even when no criminal activity is suggested? As these questions suggest, this strange phenomenon under consideration is more complicated than it might appear to be at first glance. Those who have actually faced this situation most assuredly already know that, even if they only got as far as the relative simplicity of untangling the law to see what might be done about it. A brief discussion of each of these questions follows, which serves as an overall introduction to this project. To What Extent Are We Willing to Allow Parentalist Stances by Our Government into Our Lives? If we agree that government intervention into our lives should be mini- mized, then forcing “help” onto someone who does not want it might be repug- nant to our values. On the other hand, if we believe that government should have the authority to intrude into our decisions even when we do not wish it so—thereby taking something like a paternalistic role14—then we might like to try to figure out when intrusion is appropriate and how far it should go.15 For example, a person friendly to the notion of government intrusion into a seemingly private decision might agree that the state has a legitimate interest in prohibiting automobile drivers from texting while driving,16 but that same person may or may not agree that the state has a legitimate interest in choos- ing each person’s career path,17 mandating that each eligible voter cast a vote,18 requiring that each person have health insurance,19 or enacting legislation for compulsory retirement savings.20 Or, more directly to the point, an advocate of parentalist-type policies would perhaps argue that the government should compel the occupant of a filthy residence to do a number of things, such as cleaning it up or removing herself entirely, depending on the degree to which the person had adopted a soft-paternalist or a hard-paternalist stance, or some- thing in between. Competing ideas about the appropriate role and legitimacy of government intrusion or involvement appear as a constant in the complex social equation presented by the opening scenario. Ceding personal decision-making author- ity to government—even if one can rationalize its involvement as legitimate exercise of power—is no small act. It is essentially a delegation of personal sovereignty to an institution. If personal decision-making authority is not given voluntarily, should state exercise of power to take decision-making