#20, Incentives

"We all learn to respond to incentives, negative and positive, 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 straight A's from school, you get a new bike. If you are spotted picking your nose in class, you get ridiculed. But if you make the basketball team, you move up the social ladder."

-Steven Landsburg

Incentive: something that incites or has a tendency to incite to determination or action.

We discussed one incredibly powerful example of an incentive this week in class.  The incentive to invent dramatically improved in England after the Statute of Monopolies was passed in 1623.  Citizens were offered legal protection of their ideas which allowed them to profit from their ideas like never before.

Incentives shape nearly every aspect of our lives.  Incentives are something that cause people to act in a particular manner.  An incentive to study is to get good grades.  An incentive to maintain a healthy diet is avoiding obesity.  In France, the government has even incentivized the birthing of babies,

• a decreased tax rate
• a monthly sum of cash which increases with each baby (up to ₩1,080,000 per month for a year for having a third baby AND a mother's job is guaranteed when she returns)
• a personal baby sitter once a week
• free use of public transportation for children up to age 18
• discounts on cultural events and shopping
• free admission to state nurseries

What is another example of a government incentive in the real world?  Think about a behavior that the government is trying to encourage.  What is an example of an incentive in your life?  Defend your position.

Optional: In the comic, what is Gabe's incentive not to win the Pokémon match?

-Brenden Lee Teacher

cybertronic purgatory