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For this Sunday we have the
transcript of a talk delivered by a student, Sri Toto Goyal, in the
Morning Prayer session of Swami’s University a few weeks ago.
A pair of economists conducted a study at 10 day care centers in
Haifa , Israel . They observed that there were on an average eight
late pick ups per day care center per week. After four weeks they
introduced a 3$ fine on every parent arriving more than ten minutes
late per day. For why should the day care center look after the
children for free? After the fine was introduced, the number of late
pickups promptly went…up. Before long there were twenty late pickups
per week, more than double the original average. This incentive had
clearly backfired.
Economics is at root the study of incentives: how people get what
they want or need especially when others want or need the same
thing. A typical economist believes that the world hasn’t yet
invented a problem he cannot solve given a free hand to design the
proper incentive scheme. The solution may not always be pretty, but
the original problem rest assured, will be fixed. An incentive is a
bullet, a lever, a key: an often tiny object with astonishing power
to change a situation. We all learn to respond to incentives from
the outset of life, be they negative or positive. An incentive is
simply a means of urging people to do more of a good thing and less
of a bad thing. But, someone: an economist, a parent or a politician
has to think it up.
There are three basic flavors to an incentive: economic, social and
moral. Very often a single incentive scheme will include all these
varieties. For instance, in the recent anti-smoking campaign in the
US a $3 per pack ‘sin tax’ is a powerful economic incentive against
their purchase. Banning them in restaurants and other public places
is a strong social incentive and when the US govt. asserts that
terrorists raise money by selling black market cigarettes that acts
as a rather jarring moral incentive.
So coming back to the day care center in Israel , “what did go
wrong?” Well probably the $3 fine was too small, at a total of 60$ a
parent could afford to be late throughout the month. And as baby
sitting goes, that’s pretty cheap. But there was another problem
too. The fine substituted an economic incentive ($3 fine) for a
moral one (the guilt the parents were supposed to feel when they
came late). For a few dollars, the parents could buy off their
guilt. In the 17 th week of study, when the fine was eliminated, the
numbers didn’t change. Now, the parents could arrive late, pay
nothing and feel no guilt. Such is the strange yet powerful nature
of incentives. A slight tweak can produce drastic and often
unforeseen results.
In another study that researchers conducted in the 1970s, which like
the day care center in Israel , pitted a moral incentive against an
economic one. They discovered that people tend to donate less blood
when they are given a small stipend rather than just being praised
for their altruism. The fee turned a noble act of charity into a
painful way of making a few dollars and it wasn’t worth it. What if
the blood donors had been offered a bigger fee? Surely the numbers
would have changed dramatically, but something would have changed
dramatically as well. For every incentive has a dark side. If a pint
of blood was worth something like 500 or 5000 dollars, we can be
sure that plenty of people would take notice. They might literally
steal blood at knife point. They might pass off animal blood as
their own. They might circumvent the donation limits by using fake
ID’s. Whatever the incentive, whatever the situation, dishonest
people will try to gain an advantage by whatever means possible or
rather necessary.
But then, which side of the incentive do we choose? Which of the
flavors in an incentive scheme actually prompt us to do what we do?
The economic, the social or the moral? In today’s world, morality
doesn’t find a place in mans endeavor. Money is the start, the means
and the end of doing anything and everything. Bhagwan says, “Money
comes and goes but morality comes and grows.” The 3$ fine was
introduced to make the parents feel guilty about the trouble they
were causing the day care center, but you already know what actually
happened.
Well then, think again, ‘Do we need to choose any incentive at
all?’, ‘Do we need something material to prompt us to do what we
do?’ Look around yourself and you’ll see an army of people to whom
the incentive or lets say the fruit of action does not matter at
all. Well, if not that, look within yourself and see yourself, that
self that does something as an offering to our Lord without thinking
about the fruit or as economist would say an ‘incentive’. As Bhagwan
in one of his Sankranti messages said in relation to the sports meet
that year, “Outside student do things to get name fame and wealth,
but students here do it only for Swamis satisfaction and happiness.”
It’s that happiness and satisfaction of His that will give us real
happiness and satisfaction; for His joy prompts that of all. As
mother Teresa once said, “Even for a thousand dollars I’ll not kiss
a leper, but for the love of Christ I’ll kiss a thousand lepers.” I
can think of no better example of a mortal who gave up her all to
serve people who she didn’t know and to an extent even loved ones
cannot. She truly followed what Lord Krishna had said in the
Bhagawad Gita, “Karmanyevadhi Karaste ma phaleshu kadachana,” that
is, “Do actions without expecting the fruit and offer it to Him.”
This is what made Arjuna, from a simple yet brave warrior, to
someone who became an instrument in Krishna ’s mission. After
hearing the Gita when Arjuna fought, he did not fight with an aim to
vanquish his enemies or win the kingdom, he plainly did it with an
aim to help Krishna establish Dharma in the world and fulfill his
earthly mission.
Its not that we need to give up our worldly lifestyle and money and
go and tread the Himalayan slopes, it’s but the path that we need
to. We need to understand that we are just the instruments and that
He is the doer. We will then see how much joy and happiness lies in
doing good without expecting anything in return; when our Lords
happiness and satisfaction will become ours.
As an economist rightly put it, “for every person who goes to the
trouble of creating an incentive scheme, there is an army of people
clever and otherwise who will inevitably spend even more time trying
to beat it and reach beyond.” Then, there are only a couple of
questions left to be asked, questions each of must ask himself, “Can
I beat it?” and “Can I reach beyond?”
Jai Sai Ram.
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