Originally Posted by SteveZ

"If neoclassical economics wants government to let us alone to do what we want, behavioral economics leaves room for government action to help us do what we would really want if we were rational agents. Unfortunately, the qualities that have crippled Washington in recent years — inertia, denial, allergy to complexity, preference for short-term gratification over long-term planning — are our own flaws writ large. ....

"The government just needs to provide the right rules, incentives and nudges to help us make the right choices. It would be nice if Obama could change our social norms so that green living and healthy eating and financial responsibility would be new ways of keeping up with the Joneses. But it would be enough if he changed Washington's social norms. ...

"If Obama can help us fly from our bad habits, he'll provide the change we need. ...."

Taken from the referenced article, it appears that the overall goal is to convince us we are incompetent to manage ourselves, and that the Obama administration has as its goal to replace our morality, logic, attitudes, aptitudes, actions and beliefs with whatever Pres. Obama and his cronies think are correct and in our best interests. So, the administration's goal seems to be to replace individual freedoms (to include the freedom to fail) with government-imposed sociological slavery (don't have a better term to describe it!).

Perhaps this administration needs to spend some time reading the 13th Amendment to the Constitution and 42 U.S. Code 1981 - Both of which are still the law of the land. Perhaps we should, too.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitut...dmentxiii.html
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/42/1981.html