Related to Mike's post: Here's a review of Nudge (the book by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein) that appeared in The New Yorker several months ago. The author makes a solid point:
The whole project, though, as Thaler and Sunstein acknowledge, raises some pretty awkward questions. If the "nudgee" can't be depended on to recognize his own best interests, why stop at a nudge? Why not offer a "push," or perhaps even a "shove"? And if people can't be trusted to make the right choices for themselves how can they possibly be trusted to make the right decisions for the rest of us?
Good questions.