Why do you think Pavlov is darling for many? He brought out an important concept, 'Conditioning'. What should Government ideally be using this concept for? For the benefit of greater good. Really? How? We are in a country where fortunately or unfortunately we are low on civic sense. Let us accept it and face it.
According to Confucius, "Government Exists for the Benefit of the Governed". Ideally rulers to induce good behavior adopt several practices. 1.Constant reinforcement of good practices 2. Provide incentives to people who display Good behaviour 3. Penalise the subjects
One of the serious problems which world faces today is Pollution. What solution did Delhi Government come up with? Odd and Even! How does it solve the problem? It probably prevents further damage, but the problem is left hanging in mid air. It also will have a probable damage - Those who can afford and currently with an 'Odd' number registration, will buy a second car with an 'Even' number registration and guess what Pollution levels won't come down! Will they? When constant reinforcement and levying taxes doesn't work, Government should realise that there could be a third way of addressing the problems - declare incentives to people who adhere to law and respect Natural Resources.
As an example, let's take power consumption. Climate change is it for Real? Yes. Almost all Governments agree too. The fault with current Government slabs is that, it doesn't incentivise people with Good behaviour and those respecting Natural resources.
If in a state with 85,500 citizens, if government revises slab rates across, it is a loss - loss situation. 1. The over all consumption of people won't come down because they don't see any motivation to do so and 2. It is an erosion of that much extra wealth of citizens on expenses.
Are the current solutions of reinforcing people with switching off lights or levying extra burden by increasing prices working? No. This is where, Government should take measures to increase good behaviour by pulling in more people to the bracket where they consume lesser Natural resources . Consider the following table:
According to Confucius, "Government Exists for the Benefit of the Governed". Ideally rulers to induce good behavior adopt several practices. 1.Constant reinforcement of good practices 2. Provide incentives to people who display Good behaviour 3. Penalise the subjects
One of the serious problems which world faces today is Pollution. What solution did Delhi Government come up with? Odd and Even! How does it solve the problem? It probably prevents further damage, but the problem is left hanging in mid air. It also will have a probable damage - Those who can afford and currently with an 'Odd' number registration, will buy a second car with an 'Even' number registration and guess what Pollution levels won't come down! Will they? When constant reinforcement and levying taxes doesn't work, Government should realise that there could be a third way of addressing the problems - declare incentives to people who adhere to law and respect Natural Resources.
As an example, let's take power consumption. Climate change is it for Real? Yes. Almost all Governments agree too. The fault with current Government slabs is that, it doesn't incentivise people with Good behaviour and those respecting Natural resources.
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| Scenario |
If in a state with 85,500 citizens, if government revises slab rates across, it is a loss - loss situation. 1. The over all consumption of people won't come down because they don't see any motivation to do so and 2. It is an erosion of that much extra wealth of citizens on expenses.
Are the current solutions of reinforcing people with switching off lights or levying extra burden by increasing prices working? No. This is where, Government should take measures to increase good behaviour by pulling in more people to the bracket where they consume lesser Natural resources . Consider the following table:
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| Pulling in people towards lesser consumption |
If through some measure, people's consumption comes down, you could see a significant reduction in expenditure and so will be the usage of Coal over a period of time
How do we achieve this? As a solution, consider not increasing prices for citizens under "0-100" slab. Pass the additional burden upwards. That should motivate people to reduce their power consumption as they see an incentive to be in the lower pool of consumption.
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| Incentives |
As a hypothetical situation, it serves as a punishment for those who neither realised the importance of Natural resources yet nor respect them. If the entire country is a team, those with lesser income are allowing their better off counter parts to use resources and are receiving rewards. In the end, this post is an example of how we could look at solving problems differently but the time is definitely ripe to look at offering benefits differently.
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