A few months ago I wrote a Spectator article suggesting that the government spends far too little money and time on advertising and persuasion, despite the (to me, at any rate) obvious observation that changing behaviour using information or even subtle persuasion is always preferable – on both economic and philosophical grounds – to the threat of punishment.
It still seems bizarre to me that the government spends vastly more on punishing drunk drivers than it spends on persuading people not to drive drunk. Rather as though, when my children misbehaved, my first reaction were to hit them with a large stick, only using verbal persuasion as a last resort.
However I have to admit my reasons for writing the piece were partly mischievous – and I’m not sure I wrote it expecting to have any actual effect.
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