Try different tactic in fighting war on poverty

Printed in Corvallis Gazette-Times 7/8/2015 and titled "Behavioral economics can reduce poverty." Posting here, in case you missed it.
By Michael A. MacDowell - Insanity has often been defined as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome. While this statement is used for a variety of situations, perhaps it is nowhere better applied than in characterizing this country's numerous attempts to eradicate poverty. --In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson declared war on poverty. At the time, 14.7 percent of Americans were living below the poverty line, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Fast-forward to 2013, and 14.5 percent of our citizens were poor. --Jason Zweig of Money magazine says there are many reasons for the lack of progress in this ongoing battle. In a Wall Street Journal article, he shows that most antipoverty programs have not considered how people actually act.

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‘Nudging’ Goes to College

Classical economics went wrong at its first turn, say Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler. Man is not homo economicus, the rationally calculating actor that the dismal scientists from Adam Smith down through Milton Friedman supposed our species to be. No, we are emotionally driven, contextually influenced, socially conditioned: Humans, not Econs. --Sunstein and Thaler famously lay out their Human vs. Econ divide in Nudge, their 2008 bestseller that popularized a new sub-discipline, behavioral economics. Behavioral economists recognize that people make hasty decisions for non-rational reasons, relying on rules of thumb, heuristics, and past experiences that bias their judgment and prevent them from maximizing their gains. “Unlike Econs,” say Sunstein and Thaler, “Humans predictably err.” And if you can predict what errors they will make, you can wall off temptations and set Humans up to succeed.

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U.S. Rep. David Wu loses staffers, political team amid complaints

OREGONLIVE.COM (The Oregonian), 1/18/2011 by Janie Har (Hat tip: D'Ann Mathews) - Since the November election, U.S. Rep. David Wu, D-Ore., has lost at least six staffers plus the leadership of a veteran campaign team that guided him to a seventh term amid complaints about his public behavior. Read more at Oregon Live... Read More......