Monday, August 13, 2007

Aligning Incentives

Our society is based around getting people to do things by giving them the right incentives...

Although I dislike him in many ways, I've always thought Michael Moore's suggestion that US senators who vote to apply military force must send their own kids to war is....heading in the right direction. A little extreme and/or impractical, perhaps, but heading in the right direction.

Things have gotten so dangerous and ridiculous that even high-ranking military personnel have stopped going to certain areas of Iraq in which more lowly soldiers are fighting "because it is too dangerous". People who make such big decisions claim that they pay a price of conscience when it becomes apparent to them that they've made a big mistake, but I'd like to see them have a much greater, more tangible incentive to make informed, well-planned decisions on such big issues.

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