Im not interested enough in this point to dig up the link, but there are a couple of economists out there trying out a new weight loss strategy wherein you, the fatty, enter into a legally-enforceable contract that puts a certain amount of money in escrow. If you make your weight loss goal, you get your money back. If you fail, it goes to a charity. Two thoughts:
1) I really hate being treated like a rational economic actor. It's dehumanizing.
2) The incentives on this are backwards. You don't want people to be able to say, "well, I may not have lost the weight, but at least my money is going to a good cause." What you want to do is start the program by having them decide on a sum of money and weight goal, then sit them down with a political questionnaire that measure values and issue intensity. Once that's done, the benign economists choose a cause that is diametrically opposed to your values and in the area that you identified the most attachment to. So, were I to fail in my weight loss attempts, I'd be giving the Chamber of Commerce $500 for their issue outreach program, or something. Then, not only would I be losing money and remaining chunky, but my failure of will would also hurt America.
