The economist is primarily concerned with incentives; it is also a science with statistical tools to measure how people respond to those incentives, Positive or negative. And we all learned that from the outset of life.
If you toddle over to the hot stove and touch it, you burn a finger. But if you bring home a cum Laude school report, you get spoiled with something new. If you are spotted picking your nose in class, you get ridiculed, but if you make the sports 1st team, you move up the social ladder. If you break curfew, you get grounded, but if you do well in the final exam, you have options to a good university.
Studies shown, parents who get fined for fetching their children late from preschool, don’t care about paying the fine for late arrival, why? Because they have an opportunity to pay off their guilt. Thus, incentives never guarantee a good outcome.
The moral compass is slightly fucked up, I would say. I was once one of those “parents” who paid off my moral guilt, fuck; it didn’t profit me. Then the transformation as a human being; mentally, Physically, the way I use to dress, everything about me changes. The metamorphosis was full of pain, and the changeover was not easy, it was uncomfortable; speaking the truth and face the person in the mirror and accept where you fucked up. There is no economic or psychological incentive in the changeover.
People don’t care about facts; they care about the emotion; no election was ever won on facts but by emotion—your partner, wife, whoever wants to see and experience your emotion, vulnerability and your bullshit.
If not, people around us will not follow due to the lack of authenticity.
Choose the correct incentive if not, Goodluck.
