Do the right thing, says Jeffrey Sachs

Tax exemption is an ancient, honorable and expensive tradition. Tax exemption for hospitals is all of these three, but it also places in sharp focus a fundamental problem with tax exemption in general. Organizations can retain their tax exemption while changing circumstances or expectations undermine the rationale that led to the exemption in the first place. Hospitals are perhaps the best example of this problem. The dramatic changes in the health care environment have eliminated most of the characteristics of a hospital that originally persuaded the citizenry to grant it an exemption. Hospitals have entered into competition with tax-paying businesses, and have increasingly behaved like competitive actors. Such conduct may well be beneficial, but it does not follow that tax exemption is appropriate. Rather than an undifferentiated subsidy, a shift to focused goals will provide charitable hospitals with the opportunity and incentive to “do the right thing.”

Download Full-text

Beyond Willpower: Strategies for Reducing Failures of Self-Control

Psychological Science in the Public Interest ◽

10.1177/1529100618821893 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 19 (3) ◽

pp. 102-129 ◽

Cited By ~ 29

Author(s):

Angela L. Duckworth ◽

Katherine L. Milkman ◽

David Laibson

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Intervention ◽

Decision Makers ◽

Self Control ◽

Best Interests ◽

Psychological Science ◽

Contemporary Research ◽

The Right ◽

Do The Right Thing

Almost everyone struggles to act in their individual and collective best interests, particularly when doing so requires forgoing a more immediately enjoyable alternative. Other than exhorting decision makers to “do the right thing,” what can policymakers do to reduce overeating, undersaving, procrastination, and other self-defeating behaviors that feel good now but generate larger delayed costs? In this review, we synthesize contemporary research on approaches to reducing failures of self-control. We distinguish between self-deployed and other-deployed strategies and, in addition, between situational and cognitive intervention targets. Collectively, the evidence from both psychological science and economics recommends psychologically informed policies for reducing failures of self-control.

Download Full-text