Governing Bodies. Rachel Louise Moran

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      Weight of the Nation

      In 2010 First Lady Michelle Obama announced a national weight loss and fitness initiative called “Let’s Move.” The public health project encouraged increased nutrition education and labeling as well as changes to school lunches. It emphasized cooperation between schools, corporations, celebrities, and government.¹ Almost immediately, the initiative came under sharp criticism. Fox News correspondent Sean Hannity said the program was “taking the nanny state to a new level.” “Michelle Obama,” he explained, “is suggesting what you should feed your children.”² On another television show that night, outspoken conservative Glenn Beck also sounded off on the initiative. Sure, it seemed like it was just a suggestion now, but Beck insisted such a plan would eventually become coercive. When people continued to make bad choices despite federal suggestions, he reasoned, “now you have to start thinking about punishments. Maybe a fine, maybe even jail.” The road to the french fry police, he explained, “always starts with a nudge.”³

      Glenn Beck’s concern about so-called government nudges was pointed. At the time, Cass Sunstein, President Barack Obama’s regulatory czar, was working to make nudging central to administration policy.⁴ In 2008 Sunstein had coauthored a book, Nudge, in which he argued that most people do a poor job of making their own decisions on everything from health to finances to the environment. Sunstein advocated managing citizens’ choices through what he called “libertarian paternalism.”⁵ This meant nudging people, or changing the way different choices were presented in СКАЧАТЬ