
Helping the Poor in Education: The Power of a Simple Nudge - luu
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/18/upshot/helping-the-poor-in-higher-education-the-power-of-a-simple-nudge.html?abt=0002&abg=1
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lsiebert
Often you can get dramatic results for small amounts of money,or a small
investment can pay off dramatically.

It consistently bothers me that people don't talk about low hanging fruit;
easy simple ways to make the world better, and the educational ones that often
pay for themselves in increased tax revenues and/or reductions in crime.
Simple medical interventions often pay for themselves in reduced care costs.

The article suggests that because there is no constituency to support these
changes, they don't get pushed. If that's true that's a shame.

Other examples:

HeadStart pays for itself 9 times over.
[http://www.nhsa.org/files/static_page_files/399E0881-1D09-35...](http://www.nhsa.org/files/static_page_files/399E0881-1D09-3519-AD56452FC44941C3/BenefitsofHSandEHS.pdf)

Persistently lower arrests and crime rates if you give students a 6 week
minimum wage job during the summer.
[http://www.realclearscience.com/journal_club/2014/12/04/do_j...](http://www.realclearscience.com/journal_club/2014/12/04/do_jobs_reduce_crime_among_disadvantaged_youth.html)

A simple checklist significantly reduced death and serious complications in
surgery.
[http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1871759,0...](http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1871759,00.html)

A simpl stove that can be made of local materials in africa dramatically
increases fuel efficiency, and reduces uncontrolled fires and smoke blindness
[http://www.aidafrica.net/stoves/](http://www.aidafrica.net/stoves/)

A one liter bottle and water can provide light for the poor without
electricity.
[http://aliteroflight.org/index.php](http://aliteroflight.org/index.php)

~~~
maxerickson
It would be interesting if policy debates focused more on cost benefit ratios.
Of course a big problem is that dollar values placed on benefits can be pretty
debatable, but it should often be possible to at least establish the likely
range.

I guess another big problem is that getting people in the feels is a much more
effective persuasion technique than pointing out that something is a sound
investment.

