A Swift Kick in the Rear

I think that is exactly what our society needs sometimes in order to keep it functioning. It sounds harsh, but look at some of the normalities that have begun to form because of lust for power, lack of motivation, and greed.

If you make all A's I'll give you fifty dollars son!
If you would only do the dishes, I will give you an allowance of ten dollars a week.
Why improve the design when we can continue our current design and maintain profit?

These statements represent the country we live in today. The first statement, a common barter made between parent and child these days. It is seen that with a great enough incentive, people will do what is needed to receive it, especially when the incentive is monetary. So the parent exerts their power and receives results. On the other end, we have the child, who might not want to try harder in school, but will certainly do so if it means fifty dollars towards a new video game or a few movie tickets. So, in their greed, they do what is needed to receive the reward, disregarding the grade as only a means in which they can profit. This is the mindset that kills productivity and innovation.

All too often, we see the same scenario portrayed in many different fields, especially business. Nearly gone are the days when creating something new, exciting, or innovative is done for the sole purpose of never having been done before, or to solve a problem to it's fullest. Now we are left with people who are short-sighted and see only as far as a paycheck when it comes to a new idea. For example, in the mid 1950's we saw new and creative engines that could run efficiently enough on gas to achieve upwards of thirty mpg (miles per gallon), and weren't all too costly. Now, we are having a fuel crisis, and the new hit vehicles are achieving twenty to thirty-five mpg, sixty years later.

Why is this happening you ask? It's because there is profit to be made in the forgetfulness of America. At the time, gas was considered cheap, and the new thirty mpg cars were thrown to the side as unattractive and useless. So, the technology was forgotten, and was broken out again in 2001 as the brand new invention of the 21st century. We had hybrids and fuel-efficient technology thrown upon us in heaps, completely set up to bring in a huge profit. In turn, "Efficiency Aware" Americans everywhere flocked to purchase the fuel efficient cars, hoping for a less astonishing number at the gas station. However, now these cars were twice the cost of their non-efficient counterparts, and for no apparent reason. We chalked it up to costs for new parts and research work, but the fact is they are no more costly to produce than their counterparts, and the research has been here all along. What's more is the fact that we are capable of achieving even higher mpg ratings, in the sixties to seventies. But the defining factor is profit. If you are a company seeking to maximize their profits, and are sitting on the technology to produce cars with seventy mpg ratings, but will make the same profit with thirty mpg cars, where is the motivation to change the market? It's lost in the marketing scheme, left for ten years from now when everyone hopefully has thirty mpg automobiles.

It is so sad to think that we are falling victim to this mindset, but seeking understanding in this matter could prove useful in a variety of ways. The fact is that once we understand that the average American is influenced by money, we can solve various social, economical, and medical problems that stem from this mindset.

I think the treatment of diabetes patients illustrates my point. I watched a speech by a man who was talking of the "last mile" problem with innovatory ideas. He spoke of how we can create and revolutionize all we want to, but if we don't understand the way people think, we will never get them to fully maximize the potential of the product. He talked about insulin in treating diabetes, how all the research had been done and the problem has effectively been solved. However, when it came to treating the actual patients, it was found that as many as twenty-five percent suffered some sort of diabetes related harm, such as blindness, loss of a limb, or chronic pain. The problem, he said, was in getting people to use the insulin. This was solved by the cheap and effective insulin pin, which provided an easy injection of daily insulin to a diabetes patient. The harmful effects suffered by diabetes patients plummeted thirty percent. In understanding human mindsets, they had overcome a barrier in treating patients to the fullest.

So in closing, I ask you to be aware of the way people think, the way you think, because it is often crucial in understanding many of the growing and staggering issues in the United States, and even the World, today.