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Incentive is a powerful motivator. In the simplest sense, it is a reward for desirable behavior. We see this in how we train our pets, how we work, play, and interact with each other. And this can also be seen in our more abstract ideas. Taxes, policy, politics, media, social movements, religion… Practically anything can be looked at through a lens of incentive.
During this pandemic, we’ve seen all to well how incentive has impacted the narratives we hear from the news, the policy decisions that have been pushed, and the embrace of identity politics, lockdowns, and cancel culture. All driven by incentive.
I have spoken before about the changes I’ve noted in social media, and it speaks to a larger shift in how we receive our news. With the advent of the internet, traditional news organizations (TV, print, and magazines) faced the first legitimate challenge to their dominance on information. Smaller, newer companies offered news that was pithy, new, drew clicks, and most importantly, snagged ad revenue. Money is a powerful incentive, and so instead of sticking with their principles and standards of getting the facts correct, being skeptical of the powers that be, and discovering the objective truth, they abandoned many of those to get that sweet revenue. Media used to tell you the facts and you decided how you felt about a thing. Media today tells you how to feel and you have to figure out what happened to the thing.
Much of this can be seen in the narratives being driven in today’s world. The Climate Crisis, Intersectional Identity, Civil Rights, Defund the Police, Woke Culture, Cancel Culture, MeToo, all sorts of movements are being driven by incentive. Billions of dollars are being throw around, investing in and incentivizing the various social activism that has come to dominate the news cycle and social media platforms. Multimillion dollar corporations are looking at all of that in the most rational terms possible, a business seeking to make a profit. If they can claim to be an ally to the cause, then they can get the support of the movement and all of the money that people would spend supporting their “allies.” Whether they actually believe what they are preaching is another issue entirely. My personal thoughts are that they don’t, and once the next topic du jour has come to the forefront, support will wane.
And this is very prevalent in government. Politicians, seeking to maintain their grips on power, shift their positions to fit the narratives they find online and among their constituents. It isn’t truly about their principles, it’s about power.
In politics, there are two incentives that are present. First, there is the pressure to “do something.” And second, to make sure that when they “do something,” that they can’t be blamed for the consequences of doing something. The pandemic has exasperated this by making the consequences of failure the lives of American citizens. It becomes a moral quandary with significant real world stakes, and no clear answer as to the best way to proceed. The principled approach would be to take a group of medical experts, economists, and psychologists, have each of them explain their position from only their specialized point of view, then find a way forward that mitigates things as best as possible without severe collateral damage. It requires going in knowing that people are going to die, regardless of what position is taken, and having to accept that reality. And it also requires going in knowing that you are likely to be blamed for the deaths anyway, regardless of how much damage was avoided.
But the principled approach has no incentive, so the politicians react in ways that do. They advocate for lockdowns and push the blame onto the scientists and other “experts.” They outsource their responsibilities so they can remain blameless and stay in charge. From the local government to the federal, politicians respond as they are incentivized to do.
So what can be done? The short answer is a lot, but there is little incentive to do the hard thing. The American stomach has grown rather weak when it comes to doing the hard thing. I am hopeful that as the lockdowns continue and the measures get worse and the politicians ignore their own rules, that the American people will see that the incentive lies in reducing the scope of government rather than increasing it. But I know that this will require a lot of work.
In the meantime, we should strive to incentivize ourselves to do the right thing. To treat others how we wish to be treated, to act as we wish others to act, to take a small modicum of extra responsibility without needing to be praised for it. Since we have to start somewhere, why not with ourselves?
A Place 4Politics 