Attacking The 4th Incentive

There are hundreds of polls and dozens of "top 10" lists that attempt to convey the things that motivate people to work. There are many nuances, and various levels of granularity. But from these polls and lists, there are an obvious Top 3, followed by several other less critical ones, but powerful motivators nonetheless. Behold, the Top 3 Motivators to Work:

1. Pay The Mortgage
2. Spending Money
3. Health Benefits

Not surprising, right? These are probably the reasons why many of you go to work. These are well-ingrained, culturally-inherent motivators. Think about it. If someone asks you, "why do you work?", these top three get rattled off pretty quickly. But something is changing. It's slow, and it's methodical, but something is changing. Let me pose the question a different way, with a bit more specificity, "why do you work, when everyone else who works can take care of those three things for you?".

In the past 11 months, the current administration has created a program to pay your mortgage for you if you get a little bit over your head. They've extended Unemployment Benefit durations in 13 week chunks in repeated fashion, and our Congress will in all likelihood be passing a National Health Care bill that will cover people who currently don't have coverage. So, there you have it. Why work when everyone else that works will take care of these things for you?

I grew up in a family where work ethic was king. My grandfather spoke with great pride when he described the three jobs he had (at once). From his 4 a.m. alarm to his midnight bedtime, he worked to do the following: 1) pay the mortgage, 2) have spending money to save some and provide essentials for his family and 3) to provide health insurance for his family. I wonder what he would think if he was alive today. Not to dovetail too far into any one of these motivators, but do people even save like they used to, now that Social Security is in place (which, by the way is under water, broke, insolvent and destined for failure in the next 20 years)?

OK. This is depressing. Let's focus on what we can do next, right? Well, if the recent past is prologue, the best way to address these issues is to attack the 4th biggest incentive, right? I mean, if we are trying to completely motivate people to stay home and not work, we might need to attack the 4th biggest incentive for working. What's that? Socialization in the Workplace. After the obvious financial incentives to work, people strive to establish social relationships through work. People enjoy the knowledge stimulation and relationships they establish with like-minded co-workers. So, what can we do?

My suspicion is that soon after we create the world's first successful National Health Care program, Senator Reid and Speaker Pelosi will turn their attention to the 4th Incentive. I am assuming that we will see a new bill in Congress to address the creation of Conferences, Meetings, and "Work Space" for those who don't work. I mean, how can we discriminate against them, right? If everyone else gets to attend meetings and conferences and such, why shouldn't they? Think about it. This is great. We'll poll all people who don't work to find their interests. We'll take people with an interest in Finance for example, and break them up into groups of 10, and set up meetings for each group to review fictitious General Ledgers, Balance Sheets and Income Statements. We'll give them software to perform edits, create graphs and charts, and then they can present to other groups with their findings. Maybe we can come up with some funding to send people on "business travel" to conferences in cool locations. I think we can call the program, Business for the Unemployed Relief Program (BURP).

So, once we completely eliminate every incentive to excel in the workplace (i.e. increase taxes for those who excel the most, continue to take the fruits of the labor from those who labor, to pay for those who refuse to labor, etc.), what will be next? Maybe we'll be able to to print more money and just pay everyone the same amount to do nothing.