Sludge: What Stops Us from Getting Things Done and What to Do about It

Sludge: What Stops Us from Getting Things Done and What to Do about It

By Cass R Sunstein

"A short manifesto on sludge, the goo that gums up the works of people working through various public and private systems, and why/how it should be reduced"--

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Book Information

Publisher: MIT Press
Publish Date: 09/07/2021
Pages: 168
ISBN-13: 9780262045780
ISBN-10: 0262045788
Language: English

Full Description

The New York Times-bestselling author of Nudge reveals how we became so burdened by red tape and unnecessary paperwork--and why we must do better.

"If nudges have a mortal enemy, or perhaps the equivalent of antimatter to matter, it's 'sludge'." --Forbes We've all had to fight our way through administrative sludge--filling out complicated online forms, mailing in paperwork, standing in line at the motor vehicle registry. This kind of red tape is a nuisance, but, as Cass Sunstein shows in Sludge, it can also impair health, reduce growth, entrench poverty, and exacerbate inequality. Confronted by sludge, people just give up--and lose a promised outcome: a visa, a job, a permit, an educational opportunity, necessary medical help. In this lively and entertaining look at the terribleness of sludge, Sunstein explains what we can do to reduce it. Because of sludge, Sunstein, explains, too many people don't receive benefits to which they are entitled. Sludge even prevents many people from exercising their constitutional rights--when, for example, barriers to voting in an election are too high. (A Sludge Reduction Act would be a Voting Rights Act.) Sunstein takes readers on a tour of the not-so-wonderful world of sludge, describes justifications for certain kinds of sludge, and proposes "Sludge Audits" as a way to measure the effects of sludge. On balance, Sunstein argues, sludge infringes on human dignity, making people feel that their time and even their lives don't matter. We must do better.

About the Author

Cass R. Sunstein is Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard Law School and Chair of the Technical Advisory Group on Behavioral Insights and Sciences at the World Health Organization. He was Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Obama administration.

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