The last time I went to a casino, I walked in with $100 and left with $135. My brother walked in with $100 and left with a little over $150. How? We left within 30 minutes. Why? I know the odds of losing the money I gained. I know the card probability of beating the house. I can tell you that you will lose at slot machines. The mere fact that we went to the casino for fun was instantly trumped by the fact that we were “in the green.”
Money has been said to be the root of all evils. The quest for money lends people to purchasing lottery tickets, having gambling addictions, and committing vile acts. For example, consider the money-driven act of banks during the financial crisis. The quest for outlandish sums of money led to the near collapse of the financial system and the global economy.
How much does money incentivize the people? I am unsure, but I know that I wouldn’t eat bugs for $1 million dollars like Fear Factor contestants are commonly seen doing. On the contrary, if I had just lost my job, was running low on funds and had two kids about to head to college…..maybe that earthworm tastes like chicken???? Thus, is the incentive of money situational?
Another example of situational money may stem from poverty. Last week, I listened to speakers from foreign countries discuss the education system in which they were reared. They unanimously told me that the reason they were pursuing an education in the USA was for the ultimate goal of money (in some fashion). Delving into more detail, the elaborations concluded that the reason for such monetary pursuits was because of the immense poverty in some of the nations.
Turning away from money as an incentive, are there instances in which money is not an incentive? I think this answer is definitely “yes!”
Recently I was involved in a discussion about the wealthy becoming President of the United States. I made the case that the Clintons could spend their $111 million net worth to buy a castle in the wine-country of France and still have plenty left over for the beach house (or ten) in Malta.
What I attempted to argue is that most of the candidates have the ability to “sail off into the sunset” and never look back at the seemingly broken government that serves the United States.
The role of President adversely affects the health of an individual, seems to be one of the most stressful jobs in America, and leads the individual to be despised by about half of the American populous (let alone 75% of the world). The tradeoff of such aforementioned negatives for many candidates is sitting on an island sipping a mojito without a care in the world. Maybe there is a case to be made when Presidential candidates say “I am rich and I am the president” in the sense that the candidates would probably be happier ending the sentence immediately after the word “rich.”
Now, many people responded to my comments with the rebuttal that the President is most likely more driven by power and fame than wealth. I completely agree that power is more of a driver than wealth. But is such a phenomenon always the case? Jamie Dimon is worth about $1.1 Billion, but still works as the President, Chairman and CEO of JP Morgan Chase. Is power the real driver? Probably. Thus, I assume that power trumps wealth at levels of the power hierarchy that I cannot fathom such as President, CEO, Mayor of NYC, etc.
Maybe instead of concluding that money is situational, maybe it is more appropriate to say money incentivizes certain types of tasks, but not others. Daniel Pink’s book Drive concluded that left-brained tasks such as analytical jobs respond well to “if…then” monetary incentives whereas right-brained/creative jobs didn’t respond to such incentives, but rather responded to bonuses that were given after the fact (not promising compensation, but being thrilled with compensated after the fact).
Conclusion:
This post is one of the most difficult to write a conclusion about because I am torn between the situational component of the incentive of money, the hierarchy of incentives (power>money in certain situations), and that so many crave the extra zeros in their bank account. Thus, with my uncertainty, I leave this post with a few questions:
-Do all respond to money equally?
-How much does money influence our decision making?
-Are these incentives unique to the United States or unanimous across the globe?
-Are the monetary incentives diminishing returns, meaning the more you have the less of an incentive it becomes? Even if we look at percent of wealth as in 10% increase for a millionaire and 10% increase for a typical hourly employee?
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