Still, I'd rather see these resource being spent on educating the public on behavioral economics as suppose to using the knowledge to manipulate the public.
It's true that in most situations, indirect persuasion is more effective at influencing someone's behavior than direct preaching. However, at some point, the public needs "grow up" too, and always treating us like five year olds certainly won't stimulate this process.
I hope these guys see that.
The public always has the ability to "grow up" as you put it but they do not want to. People are not motivated to take action if there isn't an immediate risk to their own personal well being. Risk has been taken out of many things that we do so now we can make ignorant choices without immediate consequences.
We keep falling off the bike, but instead of scraping our knee and learning not to fall, we have a security net there to save us over and over again.
I don't blame the government for treating us like 5 year olds when that is how a majority of people act.
But I also think it is possible to train yourself to manage your emotions better despite how strong our instinctual wiring is. This is evident in the long history of meditation practices.
So, it's good that the government is nursing us. And it will be even better if, in addition to that, they integrate meditation, behavior economics, entrepreneurial training courses, etc, into our education system. However, the current education system is far from that.