A professor of behavioral science says that if Congress and the President wanted people to spend their stimulus checks, they should have called them a bonus, not a rebate.
A rebate, psychologically speaking, is the return of a loss of one’s own money rather than a pure gain provided by someone else, so it is unlikely to be seen as extra spending money.
Getting a rebate is more like being reimbursed for travel expenses than like getting a year-end bonus. Reimbursements send people on trips to the bank. Bonuses send people on trips to the Bahamas.
Maybe, instead of taking our money only to give it back to us with the directive to spend, spend, spend, Congress could take a little less of our money in the first place. Just a thought.
