"Sludge": How bureaucracies abuse your time, with Cass Sunstein

"Sludge" constitutes the obstacles, such as bureaucratic paperwork, that society puts in place to prevent a person from accomplishing something they want to do.

Sludge can be good when it ensures that people do not behave recklessly or impulsively. But oftentimes, sludge is nothing more than an obstacle to freedom.

Sludge can be found everywhere, from the criminal justice system to acquiring a mortgage. Much of this sludge needs to be eliminated.

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About Cass Sunstein:

Cass R. Sunstein is currently the Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard. He is the founder and director of the Program on Behavioral Economics and Public Policy at Harvard Law School. In 2018, he received the Holberg Prize from the government of Norway, sometimes described as the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for law and the humanities. In 2020, the World Health Organization appointed him as Chair of its technical advisory group on Behavioural Insights and Sciences for Health. From 2009 to 2012, he was Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, and after that, he served on the President's Review Board on Intelligence and Communications Technologies and on the Pentagon's Defense Innovation Board. Mr. Sunstein has testified before congressional committees on many subjects, and he has advised officials at the United Nations, the European Commission, the World Bank, and many nations on issues of law and public policy. He serves as an adviser to the Behavioural Insights Team in the United Kingdom.

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