Targeting in Social Programs

Targeting in Social Programs: Avoiding Bad Bets, Removing Bad Apples by Peter H. Schuck and Richard J. Zeckhauser, Brookings Institution Press, 2006. 

The authors argue that the government is wasting money on two kinds of recipients of aid: bad bets, and bad apples. Examples of bad bets:

• Very sick old patients who will die soon

• Vegetative patients

• Liver transplants for chronic alcoholics

• Stupid people attending college

• Giving cancer screening tests to people who are young and healthy

• Cardiac resuscitation for people with multiple organ failure

Example of bad apples:

• Chronically disruptive students

• Addicts who make repeated ER visits

• People with STI’s who fail to use condoms

• Criminals in public housing projects

• People in homeless shelters that attack the staff

The authors assert that bad apples should be separated from good apples, so the good apples will not be harmed. For example, disruptive students should not be mainstreamed.