0 4A - Thursday, December 1, 2011 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com mymid ioan Bal'b1 Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com MICHELLE DEWITT STEPHANIE STEINBERG and EMILY ORLEY NICK SPAR EDITOR IN CHIEF EDITORIAL PAGE FDITORS MANAGING EDITOR Unsigned editorials reflect the official position oftthe Daily's editorial board. All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors. Imran Syed is the public editor. He can be reached at publiceditor@michigandaily.com. (Ad)vocating consistency AATA advertisement policy must be more clear The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority on the grounds of a free speech violation. Blaine Coleman, an Ann Arbor resident and activist, wanted to publish anti-Israel advertise- ments on the side of AATA buses. The ACLU contends that by refusing Coleman's advertisement, the AATA is violating the First Amendment right to free speech. The AATA should develop a consistent policy regarding the content of its bus advertisements to avoid future issues. It's a great honor, it's humbling and all those things:' - University football coach Brady Hake said about being awarded Big Ten Coach of the Year, as reported by The Michigan Daily yesterday. The prescriptive science I 4 Coleman sent AATA an e-mail in Decem- ber 2010 inquiring if it would be possible to purchase an ad on the side or back of the bus that runs along State Street, South University Avenue and North University, according to AnnArbor.com. His proposed advertisement stated, "Boycott Israel. Boycott Apartheid." Coleman's request was denied by the AATA, which cited a policy of accepting ads in "good taste" and rejecting those that "scorn or ridi- cule a person or group of persons." The suit was filed and pointed to the vague nature of the company's policy on advertisements. Regardless of the content of the advertise- ment, the issue lies in free speech and the con- sistency of policy. The AATA is a public transit system, and its decisions reflect on the city of Ann Arbor. By allowing certain advertisements to be placed on buses and denying Coleman's attempt to express his views, the transporta- tion authority appears to be picking and choos- ing which viewpoints it wants its riders and the city to see. A potentially unpopular opinion in the community is still an opinion, and Coleman has the right to speak his mind as much the next Ann Arbor resident. The AATA has allowed numerous contro- versial advertisements to run in the past. Res- idents of Ann Arbor have seen ads regarding issues of race, religion and politics on buses for years from organizations like New Life Church and politicians like Margaret Con- nors, a candidate for district court judge in 2008. Such examples indicate that the AATA does not have a concrete policy regarding the selection or refusal of advertisements. The AATA has the right to choose what it shows on the side of buses. These advertise- ments can affect business and the way area residents perceive the business. It is a legiti- mate concern that people who see the adver- tisement would associate the content with the AATA and not strictly with the advertise- ment purchaser. The company must developa policy with clear guidelines as to what it will and will not display on AATA buses. Consis- tency in decision-making is crucial to being fair and reasonable. The AATA's current advertisement policy is vague and has been pushed aside for past bus advertisements. The AATA must understand the risks it takes when choosing to publish a potentially controversial advertisement. By developing a clear-cut policy, the company will be able to avoid future problems regard- ing free speech. y friends tell me they're taking Economics 101 to gain some practi- cal knowledge about the field, but I think they'd learn more about how people make decisions and respond to incentives by going to a college party. ERIK There, they TORENBERG would see real life cost-benefit analyses - and few of them would be rational, consistent or optimal, as their textbooks assume. I'm notsure if Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman conducted any of his research at college parties, but his new book, "Thinking, Fast and Slow," in blurring the line between psychology and economics, reveals how unconscious biases lead people to systematically make irrational, sub-optimal decisions. What Kahneman's book does is invalidate the cold, calculating and emotionless persona that economists and policy makers have built insti- tutions around. He says he hopes that the vocabulary he outlines to describe unconscious biases - the halo effect, representative bias, illu- sion of validity, to give just a few examples - leads to more nuanced conversations about human capital. What his book doesn't do, unfor- tunately, is help us correct these systematic biases. Even Kahneman himself still falls for the same biases he's been studying for more than 40 years. The ancient maxim, "know thyself," while important, is sim- ply not enough to change behavior. Being aware that we're susceptible to priming, loss-aversion or the halo effect doesn't mean we can avoid them. Self-description, that's one thing; self-correction, that's some- thing else entirely. Yet some economists, like Rich- ard Thaler and Cass Sunstein, refuse to settle for mere self-description. Their book, "Nudge," proposes an interesting premise: Helping our- selves - changing habits, altering unconscious biases - on our own is very difficult. Our environments, however, can give us nudges that can compensate for these biases and help us make better decisions. For example, want to encourage people to lose weight? Don't show them how restaurants "prime" them to overeat. Just have the salad bar be the first thing they see in the cafeteria. Want people to save more money? Don't tell them why they're overspending. Just default them into a 401(k). Want students to have col- lege aspirations? Don't merely show them the statistics. Bring in real live examples of people who've succeed- ed and who've failedbecause of their education choices. Thaler and Sunstein call the designing of incentives choice architecture. The designs can be institutional, but they can also be personal. The application SelfCon- trol, for instance, stops users from spending too much time on the Internet. The website Stickk helps users "stick" to their goals by attach- ing a variety of monetary incentives. The community of Life Hackers, a group that posts tips and "hacks" - everyday time-saving cheats - to be more productive, is so prolific that they create life hacks to stop them- selves from posting life hacks. The applications and benefits of choice architecture are most illumi- nating, in my opinion, when applied to the context of author David Foster Wallace's speech, "This is Water." Wallace states that what your edu- cation really teaches you is not how to think, but rather, what to think. When you're shopping in the super- market late at night, and you're lone- ly, tired and hungry, the ability to analyze classroom arguments isn't going to save you. It's going to be up to you to consciously choose to not be angry, to not give other people a hard time. Choice architecture concedes that controlling what to think is a daunt- ing task. As humans, we are way more influencedbyour environments than we'd like to admit. So choice archi- tecture aimsto reverse the approach. Instead of merely encouraging peo- ple to, well, overcome their systemat- ic tendencies to make mistakes, let's change their environments to help them prevent themselves from mak- ing these mistakes inthe first place. Change your world to change your mind. So at the supermarket, you won't stress over finding groceries; you'll have your template list and which isles they're on readily available. You'll shoot your must-send e-mails just by speaking into your phone. And if you're angry, your phone will sense that and confirm that you still want to send that passive-aggressive message. In effect, there are two differ- ent sciences here. Kahneman's sci- ence, the descriptive science, is an extensive study of the system- atic flaws our intuition commits. Knowledge of this science, however, is not enough to change behavior. Choice architecture, the prescrip- tive science, aims to fill the gap left by descriptive science - to design institutions and choice structures that compensate for our biases and help us make better decisions. Kahneman has just compiled more than 40 years of descriptive science research. For prescriptive science, Thaler and Sunstein's book was just the beginning. If Kahneman is like the Lewis and Clark of the human mind, whoever masters the prescriptive science will be like Neil Armstrong. - Erik Torenberg can be reached at erikto@umich.edu. A EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS: Aida Ali, Michelle DeWitt, Ashley Griesshammer, Nirbhay Jain, Jesse Klein, Patrick Maillet, Erika Mayer, Harsha Nahata, Emily Orley, Teddy Papes, Timothy Rabb, Vanessa Rychlinski, Caroline Syms, Seth Soderborg, Andrew Weiner GRAHAM KOZAK| Reconstruct capitalism Make MSA relevant You've seen pictures of the signs and ban- ners at the globe-spanning Occupy protests: Capitalism is crisis. Capitalism isn't working. Abolish capitalism. Perhaps you've even held a placard with a similar message at a local Occupy event. As we struggle to undo the lingering damage of the 2008 financial crisis, it isn't difficult to understand why hundreds of thousands of people have taken their griev- ances to the streets. Something is clearly wrong with a system that rewards individual recklessness with bailouts while sticking those least able to pay with the bill. But the problem is not capitalism itself. Rather, it is capitalism's bastardized form - often called cronyism, state capitalism or corporatism - that is responsible for so many ills attributed to the free market. Left to their own devices, individuals acting in the free market work together to provide the goods and services that improve the lives of all, whether rich or poor. Yet the market mecha- nism, when corrupted, quickly and inevitably becomes a facilitator of unbridled greed. Of course, many do not find these claims convincing. The dispute over the merit of free markets has lasted centuries. And it is not difficult to understand why the debate endures today, for the question of capitalism is not merely one of economics. It is a ques- tion of how to structure our society. Even many of capitalism's nominal support- ers are reluctant to view capitalism as ideal or moral; it is often treated as a "necessary evil," a messy system that is nevertheless better than its alternatives. As the Occupy movement brings the flaws of our supposedly laissez-faire system into sharp focus, these weak justifica- tions are looking ever more inadequate. Clear- ly, supporters of capitalism need a deep, robust argument if the free-market system is to sur- vive the current economic crisis. Tom Palmer is one man who can help make the much-needed moral case for capitalism. Palmer is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute in Washington D.C. He is also the vice presi- dent for international programs at the Atlas Economic Research Foundation. For the past three decades, Palmer has traveled the globe, bringing the message of individual liberty to some of the world's most oppressed peoples. His journeys have taken him to the satellite states of the former Soviet Union, across the Middle East and throughout Asia, Africa and Latin America. Palmer brings a unique, global perspective to the economic and social problems we are facing here at home. The University's chap- ter of College Libertarians is pleased to host Palmer as he visits campus today, and we would like to extend an invitation to attend the talk to all members of the campus com- munity. Whether you consider yourself a cap- italist, a socialist or something in between, we're sure you will find Palmer's presenta- tion both enjoyable and educational. Tom Palmer will be presenting a free talk entitled "The Morality of Capitalism: Where Occupy Wall Street Went Wrong" today, from 7:30p.m. to 9:00 p.m. The location is Forum Hall, Palmer Commons. A question- and-answer session will follow. LSA senior Graham Kozak is the president of the University's chapter of College Libertarians 'd like to present a challenge to the Michigan Student Assem- bly: Become relevant. In the past few weeks I've become increasingly dis- satisfied with our student rep- resentatives on campus. The organization has been plagued by a lack of produc- EAGHAN tivity and rele- DAVIS vance on campus for years. After numerous conversations with friends, one of who is an MSA rep- resentative, I'm still attempting to understand the Assembly. At the end of every conversation, the question I continue to ask is "What does our student government accomplish?" I'd like to present students with a challenge. Take five minutes out of your day and see how students on campus are being represented. Go to MSA's website and see what our stu- dent government has accomplished in the past few months. I'm sure you'll be as surprised as I am. This semester, MSA has passed a dis- mal amount of resolutions. I'm not implying this is a change in behavior from the past, but upon seeing the docket of resolutions, I became dis- mayed with MSA's ineffectiveness and the organization's inability to equate the needs of every University student to representative action. This semester, MSA's track record is laughable. In October, MSA attempted to pass a resolution call- ing for the University to reconsider its investments in British Petroleum, Northrop Grumman, Monsanto, and HanesBrands Inc. It failed. A reso- lution to "reconsider investments" in companies that have histories of human rights and ecological abuses (BP's Gulf oil spill, Hanes's use of child labor) failed. An investigation into divesting from companies with questionable business practices seems like a fairly simple and non- controversial decision. Apparently, it's not for our student government. One of the most productive reso- lutions the body has produced is a resolution to support a $2.50 fee increase for student legal services. MSA has passed resolutions to sup- port bills in the state House of Rep- resentatives. (I'm sure politicians in Lansing are chomping at the bit to hear if their legislation received MSA's stamp of approval.) Ina land- mark development, MSA announced yesterday that it would change its name to the "Central Student Gov- ernment" in an attempt to make the organization more recognizable. One of my personal favorites is a resolution to support the Under the Lights Tailgate before the Michi- gan vs. Notre Dame game on Sept. 10. Though many of these legisla- tive actions make sense, is it what you'd like your student assembly to be concerning itself with? Are there not more pressing issues on campus? Less than three weeks ago, this year's round of MSA elections took place. Only 7 percent of the student body participated in electing our student representatives. I'm not going to preach about your civic duty to vote in student elections. Clearly, the percentage of students who voted was dismal. Last year, about 10 percent of the student body elected MSA officials. But there must be a reason why so few of our peers vote. I'll make my reasonsvery clear: I chose not to vote because I believe Benjamin Franklin's senti- ments on the definition of insanity. I refuse to do the same thing over and over and expect different results. Yet, because of my stubbornness and ignorance about the state of our student government, I've silenced my voice. As University students, we deserve an Assembly that is relevant - that concerns itself with problems on campus, not superfluous bureau- cratic issues. Only 7 percent of students voted this year. In the context of my challenge to MSA, I'm not using 'relevant' as a snide way to poke fun at the assem- bly's accomplishments - I mean that the assembly has the ability to be a democratic caucus for ideas and concerns across campus. Why have we as students allowed our government to become an assem- bly wrought in mediocrity? The only way to change the way MSA operates is through participation. Next time there is an opportunity to change a broken system, utilize it. I know I will. - Eaghan Davis can be reached at daviseas@umich.edu. I I I I FOLLOW DAILY OPINION ON TWITTER Keep up with columnists, read Daily editorials, view cartoons and join in the debate. Check out @michdailyoped to get updates on -DDaily opinion content throughout the day.