Galiani, Gertler, and Undurraga’s recent article in VoxDev discusses the impact of encouraging unattainable aspirations among poor households on their welfare. Using their recent paper evaluating how housing aspirations of non-beneficiaries change over time, the authors conclude that policies designed to stimulate future-oriented actions simply by raising the aspirations of poor people, without helping to provide them with the external or internal means required to satisfy those aspirations, are likely to fail.