Chase has launched the Resource Center for Mindful Spending in connection with their new “Blueprint” tool, which encourages you to pay more than the monthly minimum on your credit card bill. Kai Rysdal of the radio program Marketplace asked if we could take such a thing seriously. Good question.

But the resource center does have an interesting paper called “Born to Spend: How Nature and Nurture Impact Spending and Borrowing Habits,” which looks at contributing factors to “poor” financial habits. It’s an interesting read and makes some high-level recommendations that resonate with FAIR Money’s general outlook, including “smart nurturing,” technology solutions, and turning finances into fun. But behind all that good sense lurks another question–if so many people are so bad at managing money, does that mean that people are inadequate or that money (under current conditions) is just too hard to manage?