Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Money as an incentive...for kids?

In sales, money is the driving force for people to put in that extra effort to close out for the day, the week, or the month. Management assumes that the more money you throw at someone, the harder they will work (to a point). The question is how early can (should) this occur? I was reading an article that was stating some schools are paying kids for getting good grades on tests. I was thinking does this foster undesirable behavior later on in life. Do we want the mentality that greed is good to spread to grade school? Some would argue that all that matters is the bottom line: The grades for children, the sales for salesmen. But is that all? Does student satisfaction or client satisfaction matter in the long run?

Given the fact that greed got us into this mess economy wise, it would seem odd that pure greed would get us out. I wonder if I am in a minority of people who learn for the sake of learning. A tipping point could occur in society if more things were "incentivized" by throwing money at things. "Don't cheat on your wife for 10+ years? Get a bonus!" The intrinsic value of things might be lost on a generation literally raised on the almighty dollar. Future generations might have more accomplishments then prior ones if motivated by constant showing of money. The question is...what happens when the money runs out?

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