Sunday, November 25, 2007
Chapter 1
I really like how they compared things that seemed not to be correlated in any way with one another. It really helped their point that people are influenced by incentives. There are two kinds of incentives good and bad, people are influenced by both however the good incentive can lead to corrupt practices. In the case of the teachers cheating it was unbelievable that a teacher would cheat, though you think it is to help the students in the long run it only proves that it hurts them. In the case with the sumo wrestlers, you would think that a sport with such a high prestige would be hard to make corrupt, but where there is a will there is a way. There is always a time that one must decide which way to go, if you cheat on something small and get away with it what is going to stop you the next time? Or could this lead to you cheating on something even bigger? There always isn't a clear victim in the case either as was mentioned with the bagel story. But I believe that life is a zero sum game, in that if there is someone gaining from a behavior, there has to be someone losing or at least feeling some effects from your action.
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The teacher example also surprised me a lot, but then again, if you consider how little teachers (not including professors) are paid a year it opens up the possibility that they would try to add a bonus to there income. What also adds to the possibility of a teacher cheating, in my eyes, is how easy it would be to cheat on the standardized tests, but what I don't get is why they didn't make the cheating they did a lot more discrete. I mean teachers know how grading works, and they also know how to deal with students cheating and what methods they use, so why didn't they apply there knowledge to the situation? I thought that the Japanese had enough respect and honor instilled in sumo wrestling that cheating couldn't have been a possibility, but the more prestige and pressure on a wrestler, the more the chance of taking the "easy way out" becomes a reality. Look at the NFL or MLB for example, the sport is so competitive that over a majority of the athletes are taking the easy way out with steroids or other illegal performance enhancing drugs. This relates to the whole situation with Barry Bonds, which is ridiculous, because they are attacking one athlete, when a blind man could see how illegal performance enhancing drugs have been used since the 80s in both sports.
I have to say that I am not shocked that the teachers cheat. Try to remember two things about teachers: they are people just like us and many of them are relegated to that job because they did not get to do what they normally would. Teachers, like police officers, are ordinary people in an extraordinary job. Yet, if you watch the news, you will see that they are subject to the same vices that are prevalent in the greater society and corporate America. Teachers have inappropriate sex with students, abuse children, steal money, and cheat their employers. Just because they job is to mold young minds does not mean it is not just a job performed as service for income. Ultimately, you do act according to your job; you act according to your character. If you have floating morals, you will cheat as a teacher, preacher, scientist or call girl.
You’ve made some great points, but I don’t think life is always a zero sum game. In fact most transactions between people don’t result into a zero sum game. For example, you paid some money to attend FSU which means that the school profits from your expense, but you will profit from the education that they are giving you. You will be able to take your degree somewhere and get a higher paying job. In the end this is a win-win transaction. There are tons of examples like that taking place everyday. Even a trip to the super market lead to a win-win transaction for honest people like you and I. We get the grocery that we need to consume; the super market gets our money. In the end we both came out with something.
Those are some very good points Mike, however those transactions are different than the actions that I was talking about. I was more going for the point that if teachers cheat(action) than the kids lose.
I think that the cheating example is kind of like a concept we studied in business law. I mean, everyone cheats. It's just that a "reasonable person" gets to a line that they arbitrarily decide not to cross. I don't know if its because they want to be able to sleep better at night or if its because they don't have the incentive to go farther. But maybe sleeping better at night is the incentive.
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