tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28755195.post1549075312461723253..comments2023-09-25T04:26:51.568-06:00Comments on The Barefoot Bum: Incentives: Defining and classifying incentivesLarry Hamelinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08788697573946266404noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28755195.post-70598453937085316022013-02-19T07:51:39.730-07:002013-02-19T07:51:39.730-07:00My idea of a rigorous framework involves the rigor...My idea of a rigorous framework involves the rigorous hammering of round peg into a square hole because I happen to have a round peg when someone else produces a square hole. theObserverhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06487813166705644460noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28755195.post-31586670533383273432013-02-19T05:57:26.793-07:002013-02-19T05:57:26.793-07:00You're jumping ahead. :-) I share the intuitio...You're jumping ahead. :-) I share the intuitions you describe here, but I want to put them in a slightly more rigorous framework.<br /><br />Strictly speaking, I would classify competition as a behavior in response to incentives. Competition shares, however, the moral or means-end inversion that we apply to many incentives.Larry Hamelinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08788697573946266404noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28755195.post-59754632740029497762013-02-18T09:36:26.365-07:002013-02-18T09:36:26.365-07:00I think the biggest incentive is competition. If a...I think the biggest incentive is competition. If a company does not grow and 'innovate', it is devoured by its competitors. If an individual does not plan and advance his career, he can find himself unemployed and unemployable because his skills are out of date. Competition we are told will lower prices as companies compete and increase our standard of living because companies and individuals who innovate are rewarded and those who remain stagnant are removed. <br /><br />Competition then was once a means to an end. It was an engine to drive progress forward, to create incentives aimed at improving the human condition by increasing our mastery over nature. <br /><br />But very quickly competition became an end in itself. It seems to me that we have lost all control over our economic affairs. We cheer growth for the sake of growth; we work ever increasing number of hours in jobs that simply do not need to be done (eg the majority of financial services jobs); the boundaries between work and leisure are increasingly blurred with new technology; scientific research is enslaved to profit driven corporations and on and on. Even our leaders now dress like office managers and adapt business language to inspire us. It has become common to refer to humans as 'resources' and treat nature as a huge warehouse to be used at will. It's impossible to conclude that our economic system serves the human race. Yes we get to watch the Kardashians on wide screen plasma TVs behind increasingly common walled and gated communities. Whoop de do. The price is merely the majority of your life spent trading your labor for another persons benefit. <br /><br />We have created so many damn incentives that we are not sure what we are incentivizing any more. Incentives, once a means, have now become an end in itself.theObserverhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06487813166705644460noreply@blogger.com