Nudge nudge, wank wank
I think this probably falls into the category of "hope in one hand and shit in the other, see which gets full first" rather than "money talks and bullshit walks" strictu sensu, but it does have this passage, which I think exemplifies what it is that I find so irritating about the MTBW series - the sending out of a self-congratulatory press release in anticipation of having actually done the thing:
Windsor and Maidenhead council hopes to join forces with a commercial rewards scheme such as Nectar – whose points can be redeemed in Sainsbury's, Homebase and Argos among others – or RecycleBank, whose vouchers can be spent in outlets including Marks & Spencer and McDonald's. [...] Officers are still working out the practicalities, but it is likely residents would get a loyalty card similar to those available in shops.
Via Chris. Armando Ianucci must be laughing up his sleeve.
Given that a multi-vendor reward card scheme is basically a whacking great database, how does this square with their commitment to stop firehosing cash on the UK's DBAs like it was Gesell stamped vouchers?
ReplyDeleteI think their aspiration is to allow council staff and "community leaders" to simply hand out Nectar points at will, a system which on the face of it would appear to be open to abuse. But since the whole thing looks very much like MTBW, who cares.
ReplyDeleteI hate to be pedantic, but it should be "stricto" rather than "strictu".
ReplyDeleteFor this to count as nudge/ behavioural economics rather than straight-forwardly paying people to do unpleasant stuff with Nectar points, wouldnt it require the admission that it's not all that rational to care very much about accruing near-valueless points? I wonder if the Nectar people agreed to the press release describing the scheme as such?
ReplyDeleteSteve R
House of Lords to hold nudging inquiry:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11669664