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They pitch it as a “discount” if you complete it and meet goals.

Yes, but that actually works and makes people generally happier with it than if it were pitched as a penalty.

A good case study of this is world of warcraft's rest system when it was first introduced in beta vanilla back in the day. Initially it was called a penalty for playing too long; you would begin to receive less XP. Players didn't like this, so they rereleased the system and called it a rested XP bonus. Players loved it.

It may be manipulative, but if it makes people happier and results in higher usage rates for the system, then why not?

What about countries with mandatory health insurance. How should it be handled here?

First thing we can do is to call the health insurance mandate penalty a deduction.

With no opting out because it would affect lifestyle choices? There actually are some programs to get boni, but I am mostly against this. Public health insurance is a system based on solidarity. I would like the option to opt out of Public health insurance.

Yeah, they pitched it as a discount but they also raised the base rate at the same time so the framing rang a little hollow.

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