While doing research for another project, I came across this dandy little tool at the New York Times website: It lets participants make choices about how to solve the projected deficits. Click here to give it a spin.
Implications: The challenge of government, these days, is to help its citizenry understand the complex issues of taxation, services rendered, and sacrifices required. This puzzle/tool helps the participant gain fundamental knowledge of a complex issue. (I found myself wishing a form like this could have replaced the one I was offered at the ballot box a couple of weeks ago.)
You know, really good political commentary is hard to find these days, but I did hear a pearl of wisdom one day, just before the election, while flipping through the news channels. Someone said (I’m paraphrasing), “The problem is that we all want to go on the Hot Fudge Sundae Diet. We all know we need to go on a diet, but none of us wants to give up the hot fudge sundae that’s sitting right in front of us.”
Indeed, many folks have a NIMBY approach to tax cuts, not unlike their feelings toward nuclear power plants or hazardous waste facilities: They’re necessary and important to have, but Not In My Back Yard.
I only bring it up because voters are also consumers. And most companies are at risk of eventually facing the same kind of conundrum. It could be related to the battle between products that are cheaper because they are made with less expensive foreign labor… or it might have something to do with a service that is personally enjoyable but environmentally harmful.
Do you have ideas to explain complex consequences in an easy-to-understand way? Doing so might mean the sale or no-sale of a product, service, new store location in a quaint neighborhood... or even just an idea.
No comments:
Post a Comment