Question

1. What is the large public policy issue revealed in the podcast? Explain

Answer 1

“What are the issues with using nudges in public policy?”

This might fall under the “Bigotry of low expectation”.

Nudging generally assumes those being nudged are too incompetent to make rational decisions on their own while those doing the nudging are superior and beyond the need for nudging.

Many times those doing the nudging are getting their reasoning from faulty information. One example may be to look at the government’s unconstitutional Food and Drug Administration nutrition guide pyramid and how much it has changed over the years[1] .

Another place to look is the war on poverty. It has led to a breakdown in the family. One of their bigoted claims was blacks couldn’t succeed without government handout. This had the opposite affect[2] .

As Bastiat said about nanny-ism,

“Ah, you miserable creatures! You who think that you are so great! You who judge humanity to be so small! You who wish to reform everything! Why don't you reform yourselves? That task would be sufficient enough