Bloomberg's behavior boost

Virtue will no longer be its own reward under an experimental plan to pay the poor for good behavior, announced by New York City officials this week. Rather, cash awards will be given to low-income residents for improving their personal choices.

The behavior modification experiment is the brainchild of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and is modeled after similar programs in Brazil and Mexico City, according to The Associated Press. About 14,000 residents will participate in the two-year pilot program.

Mayor Bloomberg has raised $43 million in private funds to undertake the experiment, which will give cash rewards for doing well on school tests ($300), attending parent-teacher conferences ($25), getting regular dental checkups ($100), and so forth.

The idea is to encourage better behavior and good habits. Maybe it will get the sort of media attention often provided Mr. Bloomberg and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger cited by columnist Jonah Goldberg on our Commentary page.

The program already has generated a critical response from a former domestic policy advisor to ex-President Bill Clinton. Margy Waller, a co-founder of Inclusion, a research and policy group in Washington, said, in comments quoted by the AP: "It just reinforces the impression that if everybody would just work hard enough and change their personal behavior we could solve poverty in this country, and that's not reflected in the facts." Ms. Waller added that a more productive plan would ensure that labor laws are properly enforced and that benefits for working people are improved.

Mayor Bloomberg is taking the position that working hard and changing personal behavior actually does make a difference more often than not. While the expectation of long-term rewards should be incentive enough to do well in school, for example, maybe priming the pump will help achieve that end and others.

The fact that Mayor Bloomberg doesn't take a typically statist approach to a difficult problem is all the more reason to hope for results. And this Bloomberg plan doesn't grow government or cost the taxpayers.