Healthy choices: Can they be bought? It looks like the City of New York is about to find out.
Just in case you missed it, New York mayor Michael Bloomberg is about to roll out a pilot program that offers cash rewards for making healthy lifestyle choices. You know, holding a job, keeping a doctor appointment, things like that.
The idea is to help people break out of a cycle of setbacks that can lead to continued poverty. It's a worthy goal. Who among us hasn't experienced, at least for a brief moment, that sense of hopeless resignation that our lives are plummeting out of control in a direction we don't like? Wouldn't it be great to have access to a "reset" button at moments like that?
And yet, the program's detractors offer a very interesting argument.
People critical of Bloomberg's new program argue that it "promotes the misguided idea that poor people could be successful if they made better choices."
Now I may have my reservation about the program, but that's not it. Come on! How can it be misguided to consider that people can improve their lives by making better choices?
How many people do you know who have improved their lives?
I know lots of them. And as nearly as I can tell, each and every one of those success stories starts with the person learning to make better choices. How could it be anything else?
Here's my reservation. I wonder if the desire to make those healthier choices consistently over time, even when it would be easier not to, can be bought for a price. I hate to throw a wet blanket on Bloomberg's well-intentioned idea, but I really wonder if any amount of money can provide the motivation people need to step up to the plate and turn their lives around.
For myself, my suspicion is it takes something else. Some kind of internal flame that ignites one day and can't be extinguished, even when the going gets tough (which it may).
The truth will be told in the end, of course, because we'll eventually read about the results of this pilot program. Meanwhile, what do you think? Can the desire to turn your life around be bought for a price? Or is it an inside job? Leave a comment!
In our next article, we'll explore another angle to this idea.
Elizabeth Eckert can help you explore how simple everyday choices create health — or undermine even the best of intentions. With a background that ranges from energy medicine to structural bodywork to developmental psychology, this "Stick-To-It Coach" has the experience to support you in creating the healthiest possible expression of — you!
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Comments (2)
I agree it's definitely "an inside job" the igniting of a flame of passion that makes you want to do what's right for yourself, i.e., make better healthier choices. But I don't know by what various mechanisms the flame might be ignited... if for some it is getting paid to try something good/different, then I guess we may find that out. But I certainly don't think that everyone, or even MANY, may necessarily be influenced to make a life-time change by getting paid for making healthy choices...
I must also agree that those who say a person can't grow/improve by making better choices is pretty far off the mark. What an interesting idea this paying for healthy choices, wonder how long it will take to find out if it's going to stick for some, or just end when the money runs out...
Posted by judith greenwood | July 11, 2007 5:33 PM
Posted on July 11, 2007 17:33
Yes, the question of how to ignite the flame looms large. My guess would be that once people can see a clear path to the possibility of the life they want, they'll be more likely to get out there and create it. If that's true, then bribing them to get started could just work. However stay tuned... Interesting new twist coming in the next article.
Posted by Elizabeth | July 11, 2007 10:48 PM
Posted on July 11, 2007 22:48