Lately I've been thinking a lot about one of the fundamental principles of economics. It goes something like: "People act rationally. If the marginal benefits are greater than the marginal cost, people will act. If the costs are greater than the benefits, they won't." In examining the future, I've been wondering about how we get people to change at their core level. I think it simply comes down to this economic rule.
Applying this rule to life, it's clear to see how it holds up. People don't do things they think are stupid. People can do things because they are ignorant, but that simply means that they have less information than they should have. Perhaps they have the wrong information.
So to bring about fundamental change, we need to set up a new system of costs and benefits. Our extrinsic lifestyle teaches us to love things that don't really make us happy. Faulty rewards system. Fix it.
Our fear of failure keeps our greatest advancements in check. Fix it.
Our fear of ourselves keeps us in the dark about who we are. Fix it.
Our educational system that attempts to shove children into a preset mold breaks limbs that cannot be accommodated and amputates "useless" appendages. Good for crippling, poor for educating. Fix it.
Don't even get me started on our health. Fix it.
Using some gaming references, America has put us into a game with a very poor set of achievements. We play the game but don't understand why we aren't happy. We are all making "rational" decisions based on our game rules, based on our reward system, based on our cost vs benefit charts, but those decisions aren't getting us the effects we thought they would. We are winning at a game where winning isn't fun.
Fix it.
Time to change some rules. Time to change costs and benefits.
Time to make a new game. :D
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