Friday
Went to Milwaukee (Hales Corners)
Party Party Party :)
Saturday
Resumed....
Party Party Party:)
Happy Birthday E
Sunday
home.....
Read Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth and Happiness., by Richard Thaler
I hated this book and everything it stood for, I hate the premise of a third party deciding what is good for me. The first few chapters we worth while about why people make the decisions they do and the psychology behind it, but as soon as he started to determine how to use this to make the world a better place I get enraged.
Granted things like automatic opt in for 401k are probably a good idea for most people but automatic opt in for organ transplants just started a slippery slope for me. What if the powers that be decide that automatic opt in to the Military is a great benefit to the country? I still think for better our worse people should have the right to decide what they want.
I also think his pompous remarks about the difference between ECON's and "humans" were kind of tiring. I have seen just as many studys of "Econs" falling into the same logical traps so you are not immune to the dumb ways of thinking Mr. Thaler
The only thing I ended up liking from this book was his stance on marriage that the state and federal level should only recognize civil unions and not marriages and leave the marriages to the church. Otherwise screw it ....
7 comments:
Agreed. Wasn't it only a few years ago when the government wanted to have a kind of "fat tax" - a tax on foods that were "of little or no real nutritional value"? How do you decide that?
Definitely slippery slope.
Yeah, that sounds like a book I may pass on :-)
Sounds like you did a lot of partying this weekend ;) Hope you had fun!
The marriage thing, right on.
I love your weekend recaps as it reminds me that someone else drinks as much (if not more) than I do on the weekends.
So we still have to gather for a few drinks.... I'm not drinking again until next week...
lol..and this weekend was an execptionally drunk weekend. But I guess when you are in WI that is bound to happen.
I am up for a few any time let me know when you are ready to roll off the wagon and we will make it happen
I havn't read the book, but just read the synopsis on Amazon... interesting that there are "Big Brother fans" that advocate for systems that engineer (they call it architect) limited choices for people. I like the idea of government providing a safety net, but not a fishing net. I agree Brian - I rail against a perception of having limited choices. I think it shows the lack of investment in educating americans to be critical thinkers. Could you replace "nudge" with "dumb-down" and get the same effect? If so, then I think we should start a "Free Thinkers Society" and start recruiting children to join.
Agree on the marriage part. The rest sounds quite coercive and removes individual responsibility, which is central to people being, well, able. Without individual responsibility is trained incapacity and when it applies to everything, it means people are suddenly unable to make decisions on their own. A country of that would be terrible.
Post a Comment