Heck, I've often said that if I were president and we needed more revenue, I'd raise taxes and raise withholding more, and when the refund checks came out, 90% of people would think they'd gotten a tax cut. While I wish we could have a rational discussion that would lead to people wanting to do the right thing, even if it causes them some pain in the short run, the past year has convinced me even more that ain't gonna happen. In the absence of that, I'm all in favor of anything that will make people want to do the right thing, no matter how underhanded it may seem on the surface.

Think of it as psychological economics. If the purpose of applied economics is to align financial incentives, the purpose of psychological economics is to align psychological incentives. Especially with long-term problems that our brains aren't evolved to respond to, "tricking" people into overcoming our natural mental tendencies and doing the right thing is probably the only way it's going to happen.