Gov't Knows Best? White House creates 'nudge squad' behavior

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308Mike
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Gov't Knows Best? White House creates 'nudge squad' behavior

Post by 308Mike »

ASSHOLINESS from the DIPSHIT IN CHARGE - what these ASSHOLES don't understand even though they CLAIM to be Americans, is that WE ARE NOT THE BRITISH!!! WE AREN'T BIG FANS OF GOVERNMENT (unless you're on welfare).

But if you don't agree to their programs, you can count on whatever government assistance (or even your TOTAL medical care by that time, BEING DENIED 'cause you wouldn't go along with the government program). How is all this NOT part of a COMPLETE government control program???? Sure, it'll take years to implement, but the sooner we can stop it now, the easier it will be to dismantle more of the programs, BEFORE they ALL get to entrenched and embedded:
Gov't Knows Best? White House creates 'nudge squad' to shape behavior
By Maxim Lott
Published July 30, 2013 | FoxNews.com

Image
March 4, 2013: The White House is seen through a chain-link fence in Washington. (AP)

The federal government is hiring what it calls a "Behavioral Insights Team" that will look for ways to subtly influence people's behavior, according to a document describing the program obtained by FoxNews.com. Critics warn there could be unintended consequences to such policies, while supporters say the team could make government and society more efficient.

While the program is still in its early stages, the document shows the White House is already working on such projects with almost a dozen federal departments and agencies including the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture.

"Behavioral sciences can be used to help design public policies that work better, cost less, and help people to achieve their goals," reads the government document describing the program, which goes on to call for applicants to apply for positions on the team.

The document was emailed by Maya Shankar, a White House senior adviser on social and behavioral sciences, to a university professor with the request that it be distributed to people interested in joining the team. The idea is that the team would "experiment" with various techniques, with the goal of tweaking behavior so people do everything from saving more for retirement to saving more in energy costs.

The document praises subtle policies to change behavior that have already been implemented in England, which already has a "Behavioral Insights Team." One British policy concerns how to get late tax filers to pay up.

"Sending letters to late taxpayers that indicated a social norm -- i.e., that '9 out of 10 people in Britain paid their taxes on time' -- resulted in a 15 percent increase in response rates over a three-month period, rolling out to £30 million of extra annual revenue," the document reads.

Another policy aimed to convince people to install attic insulation to conserve energy.

"Offering an attic-clearance service (at full cost) to people led to a five-fold increase in their subsequent adoption of attic-insulation."

[Read the full document here]

Such policies -- which encourage behavior subtly rather than outright require it -- have come to be known as "nudges," after an influential 2008 book titled "Nudge" by former Obama regulatory czar Cass Sunstein and Chicago Booth School of Business professor Richard Thaler popularized the term.

The term "nudge" has already been associated with the new program, as one professor who received Shankar's email forwarded it to others with the note: "Anyone interested in working for the White House in a 'nudge' squad? The UK has one and it's been extraordinarily successful."

Richard Thaler told FoxNews.com that the new program sounds good.

"I don't know who those people are who would not want such a program, but they must either be misinformed or misguided," he said.

"The goal is to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of government by using scientifically collected evidence to inform policy designs. What is the alternative? The only alternatives I know are hunches, tradition, and ideology (either left or right.)"

But some economists urge caution.

"I am very skeptical of a team promoting nudge policies," Michael Thomas, an economist at Utah State University, told FoxNews.com.

"Ultimately, nudging ... assumes a small group of people in government know better about choices than the individuals making them."

And sometimes, he added, government actually promotes the wrong thing.

"Trans-fats were considered better than saturated and unsaturated fats in the past. Now we know this is an error."

Every intervention would need to be tested to make sure it works well, said Harvard economics professor David Laibson, who studies behavioral economics and is in touch with the people in government setting up the program. He added that the exact way the team will function is currently unknown.

"We have to see the details to be sure, but this could work out very well," he said.

Asked about details, Dan Cruz, spokesman for the U.S. General Services Administration (the department which the team will be a part of) told FoxNews.com: "As part of the Administration's ongoing efforts to promote efficiency and savings, GSA is considering adding some expertise from academia in the area of program efficiency and evaluation under its Performance Improvement Council."

Maya Shankar did not respond to questions.

Laibson added that he hoped the U.S. program would stay away from overly controversial subjects.

"Let's say we want people to engage in some healthy behavior like a weight loss program, and then start automatically enrolling overweight people in weight loss programs -- even though they could opt out, I'm guessing that would be viewed as offensive ... a lot of people would say, 'I didn't ask for this, this is judging who I am and who I should be."

But Laibson added that there are very real benefits to some "nudge" policies -- such as one that increases the number of people registered as organ donors by making people decide when they apply for a drivers' license.

Thaler, who is also an adviser to the British Behavioral Insights Team, said that his research also supports automatically enrolling people in retirement savings plans.

"Many people have struggled to save enough to provide for an adequate retirement. ... Two simple design changes can dramatically improve the situation ... automatic enrollment (default people into the plan with the option to easily opt out) and automatic escalation, where workers can sign up to have their contributions increased annually," he said.

Jerry Ellig, an economist at the Mercatus Center, said that some "nudges" are reasonable, but warned about a slippery slope.

"If you can keep it to a 'nudge' maybe it can be beneficial," he added, "but nudges can turn into shoves pretty quickly."
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Darrell
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Re: Gov't Knows Best? White House creates 'nudge squad' beha

Post by Darrell »

Gosh, just imagine the government KEEPING ITS NOSE OUT OF PEOPLES' BUSINESS, and adhering to constitutional duties. Silent Cal, now more than ever. :evil:
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Aesop
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Re: Gov't Knows Best? White House creates 'nudge squad' beha

Post by Aesop »

We have our own nudge squad: the soap box, ballot box, jury box, and cartridge box.

It's an open question how long before we get to the Little League rule that "everyone plays".
But the dipshits who think they were crowned sovereigns seem hell-bent on testing the patience of the public to the breaking point.
"There are four types of homicide: felonious, accidental, justifiable, and praiseworthy." -Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
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Termite
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Re: Gov't Knows Best? White House creates 'nudge squad' beha

Post by Termite »

I see convincing Joe Sixpack to save more money for his retirement as a good thing.
"Life is a bitch. Shit happens. Adapt, improvise, and overcome. Acknowledge it, and move on."
Aesop
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Re: Gov't Knows Best? White House creates 'nudge squad' beha

Post by Aesop »

Termite wrote:I see convincing Joe Sixpack to save more money for his retirement as a good thing.
"Convincing" implies one is able to make that case in the marketplace of ideas, and leaves the rubber hose and brass knuckles out of the exercise.
Unfortunately, rubber hoses and brass knuckles is where government "convincing" starts, and it escalates from there.

And on the subject, exactly how is Joe supposed to "save" for retirement, when savings earns 0%, and compounded with inflation, every dollar saved is worth 21 cents at the other end, +/- 40 years later?
Stock market? How'd that work out for retirees in 1999?
Home? Yeah, that went so well in 2007.
Bonds? With everyone from cities like Detroit to states like CA, not to mention the feds printing money 3 shifts a day, functionally insolvent?
Precious metals? A guy who started work 40 years ago couldn't buy gold.
And brokers and investors in the know have been liquidating "assets" like a fire sale was coming for the last 24 months, and respectable brokers have quit the business, stating plainly and publicly that it's all rigged, a giant house of cards waiting to collapse.

So just maybe by spending every cent he could on tangible assets, or even beer and hookers, Joe was better off than he would be setting his money on fire as the Fed and the .gov and the whole lot work out creative new ways to swindle a person out of every last cent, and giving Uncle Sam the go-ahead to start "encouraging" you plunking your money into a bottomless outhouse isn't such a hot idea in the first place.

My response to every bright idea government has about what I "oughta" do, is to suggest they shove a lit tiki torch up their collective @$$#$ until they see the light.
"There are four types of homicide: felonious, accidental, justifiable, and praiseworthy." -Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
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Erik
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Re: Gov't Knows Best? White House creates 'nudge squad' beha

Post by Erik »

Termite wrote:I see convincing Joe Sixpack to save more money for his retirement as a good thing.
Oh yeah, I know about those "retirement savings".
Thaler, who is also an adviser to the British Behavioral Insights Team, said that his research also supports automatically enrolling people in retirement savings plans.

"Many people have struggled to save enough to provide for an adequate retirement. ... Two simple design changes can dramatically improve the situation ... automatic enrollment (default people into the plan with the option to easily opt out) and automatic escalation, where workers can sign up to have their contributions increased annually," he said.
Wanna bet that those plans will be locked until retirement?

We had things like that here, and still do. When they first came out, Government nudged their brains out to get people into them. Of course, they never once explained why people should need to save extra, when their taxes are already going into a general pension fund, that was said to give everyone a fully funded pension.

One feature of those plans is that you cant get any money out of them until you retire, so the money is effectively locked in. It's a piggy bank waiting to be raided. And suddenly Government needs more money for entitlements, and there's all that money that no one is using right now, so let's just "borrow" it, and later make a new law so we don't have to pay it back. After all, there's already a General Pension Fund, so why should anyone need this extra money they saved?

Anyone saving any money where it's locked and waiting for the Government to grab it is just tempting fate. Even if Government promises to not take it now (and actually means it), there's no way to know what the next Government, or the next after that, will do.
"Life is tough, but it's tougher if you're stupid."
John Wayne
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PawPaw
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Re: Gov't Knows Best? White House creates 'nudge squad' beha

Post by PawPaw »

Termite wrote:I see convincing Joe Sixpack to save more money for his retirement as a good thing.
Isn't that what Social Security was supposed to be? It sounds to me like another guvmint program waiting to be plundered.
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MiddleAgedKen
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Re: Gov't Knows Best? White House creates 'nudge squad' beha

Post by MiddleAgedKen »

The federal government is hiring what it calls a "Behavioral Insights Team" that will look for ways to subtly influence people's behavior, according to a document describing the program obtained by FoxNews.com. Critics warn there could be unintended consequences to such policies, while supporters say the team could make government and society more efficient.
What, the tax code isn't enough?

On that subject, stick around. It says here we're soon going to hear, "What do you mean you don't have a substantial portion of your portfolio in Treasuries? I thought you were a patriot," and such like things.
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Cobar
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Re: Gov't Knows Best? White House creates 'nudge squad' beha

Post by Cobar »

...while supporters say the team could make government and society more efficient.
There is a lot of dead weight in government. Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea to make it more efficient.
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skb12172
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Re: Gov't Knows Best? White House creates 'nudge squad' beha

Post by skb12172 »

Except that their idea of more efficient means more of your money.
There must be an end to this intimidation by those who come to this great country, but reject its culture.
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