Get Free Shipping on orders over $79
Sludge : What Stops Us from Getting Things Done and What to Do about It - Cass R. Sunstein
eTextbook alternate format product

Instant online reading.
Don't wait for delivery!

Go digital and save!

Sludge

What Stops Us from Getting Things Done and What to Do about It

By: Cass R. Sunstein

Paperback | 6 September 2022

At a Glance

Paperback


$37.75

or 4 interest-free payments of $9.44 with

 or 

Ships in 5 to 10 business days

The New York Times-bestselling author of Nudge reveals how we became so burdened by red tape and unnecessary paperwork-and why we must do better.

"If nudges have a mortal enemy, or perhaps the equivalent of antimatter to matter, it's 'sludge'." -Forbes

We've all had to fight our way through administrative sludge-filling out complicated online forms, mailing in paperwork, standing in line at the motor vehicle registry. This kind of red tape is a nuisance, but, as Cass Sunstein shows in Sludge, it can also impair health, reduce growth, entrench poverty, and exacerbate inequality. Confronted by sludge, people just give up-and lose a promised outcome: a visa, a job, a permit, an educational opportunity, necessary medical help. In this lively and entertaining look at the terribleness of sludge, Sunstein explains what we can do to reduce it.

Because of sludge, Sunstein, explains, too many people don't receive benefits to which they are entitled. Sludge even prevents many people from exercising their constitutional rights-when, for example, barriers to voting in an election are too high. (A Sludge Reduction Act would be a Voting Rights Act.) Sunstein takes readers on a tour of the not-so-wonderful world of sludge, describes justifications for certain kinds of sludge, and proposes "Sludge Audits" as a way to measure the effects of sludge. On balance, Sunstein argues, sludge infringes on human dignity, making people feel that their time and even their lives don't matter. We must do better.
Industry Reviews
If nudges have a mortal enemy, or perhaps the equivalent of antimatter to matter, it's "sludge." Sunstein uses this term to describe unnecessarily effortful processes, bureaucratic procedures, and other barriers to desirable outcomes. Sunstein has exposed this conflict head-on in his new book, Sludge: What Stops Us from Getting Things Done and What to Do about It. He shows how the most effective government programs, Medicare and Social Security, reach almost all eligible citizens because the government does the recordkeeping and offers simple enrollment processes to receive benefits.
--Forbes

"Sludge, according to Cass Sunstein, is whatever frictions separate us from what we want. It comes in many forms...even sensible requirements that take more time than we can spare."
--The Christian Century

In Sludge, Sunstein shines a light in the bureaucratic darkness, and, by calling for "sludge audits," adds his moral authority to the growing demand to clear out the bureaucratic underbrush.
--Education Next

More in Economics

How Europe Underdeveloped Africa - Walter Rodney

RRP $32.99

$25.75

22%
OFF
The Culture Code : The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups - Daniel Coyle
The Trading Game : A Confession - Gary Stevenson

RRP $26.99

$22.99

15%
OFF
Breakneck : China's Quest to Engineer the Future - Dan Wang

RRP $55.00

$42.75

22%
OFF
Blindspotting : How to See What Others Miss - Kirstin Ferguson

SIGNED COPY

RRP $36.99

$18.50

50%
OFF
Abundance : How We Build a Better Future - Ezra Klein

RRP $36.99

$29.75

20%
OFF
Thinking in Systems : A Primer - Donella Meadows

RRP $55.00

$27.99

49%
OFF
Guns, Germs And Steel : The Fates of Human Societies - Jared Diamond
Skin in the Game : Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life - Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Debt : The First 5000 Years - David Graeber

RRP $44.99

$35.75

21%
OFF
The Simple Path to Wealth (Revised & Expanded Edition) - JL Collins