"These aren't the droids you're looking for"

(Please excuse the Star Wars quote, but it is spot on for what I'm talking about)

Obama is attempting to nudge us towards health, wealth, and wisdom. He is being advised by the authors of the book "Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness", which is a great book but a horrific thing for your government to reference in terms of federal policy.

There is a valley between "Just Say 'No'" and "No." There is another word for "nudging" and that is "manipulating." It is cute and tongue in cheek to say "nudge", but really the government is using what's called "Choice Architecture" (from the book) to give a false sense of choice. A perfect example of this is auto-enrollment in 401K plans. You aren't forced to stay in the plan and can reclaim the 5% of your paycheck that may be invested for you, but more likely than not (about 80% of those surveyed) you will leave the investment plan alone and never miss the money you never received.

Get your foil hats out. If the government is going to start nudging us on matters of finance and health, how long until our political choices are "nudged"? In fact, aren't our health and financial decisions political in nature since they often proscribe related political beliefs on matters of stem cell research and taxes. I imagine it won't be too long until they start handing out the soma.