Quote Originally Posted by JakeMartinez
You've missed a few key points, GoldenBoy.

There are 3 I'm pushing right now. They are Intrinsic v Extrinsic motivation, the failure of the free market system, and the emergent nature of the free market. I'm sorry but I ranted off a bit too much on my idea for a society, while ignoring the important issues. Keep in mind that I'm only 18. I have plenty of time to keep evolving this idea and making it better. However, for this argument, I'm going to put that to the side for a minute.

First off, if you read up on intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, you'll find that intrinsic, though harder to create in somebody, greatly improves the productivity of a person. Extrinsic is cheap, quick, and dirty. For example, if I have a daughter and I want her to play the violin, I could go about it one of two ways. One, I could offer her rewards for regular practice and admirable performances by A) Telling her I'll give her a healthy allowance if I hear her practice an hour every day B) Telling her that I'll strip her privileges if she doesn't practice at least twice a week C) Tell her that if she ends up "grounded", she'll have to practice an hour a day for x number of days.

That little girl will practice her ass off. Literally. She'll play until her fingers are bleeding and she can't straighten her neck. But, she won't practice wisely, she'll learn slowly because she hates it, and she'll stop playing altogether once she's out of the house, which defeats the purpose of trying to motivate her to play the violin.

Option B is to teach her to the best of my abilities to appreciate classical music styles, along with other violin-heavy genres of music, and show her how rewarding it can be to do so. If I'm not too pushy, and RANDOMLY reward her without her prior knowledge for good performances and diligent practice, with such rewards becoming less and less frequent over time, she will learn to always challenge herself to play better than she is now without any sort of reward except the one she gets from playing the music. And, perhaps more importantly, she'll be delighted for the chance to play.

Do you understand what I'm getting at here?
I like what you have to say, but option b is a form of cohesion if it is your goal to get someone else to subscribe/accept to a particular belief, activity, ideology. Unless the desire comes from within to play violin, any attempt to persuade, reward, or teach is extrinsically motivating the individual. Basically it has to be a spontanious desire that motivates someone to do something to truly be intrinsic.

I do understand where your getting at, that it is possible to instill intrinsic motivation into not only one person, but all of society around the world. This is something i do not believe possible without chemical and psychological modification/manipulation. Which is why it would be great for you to read Brave New World.

Now, about the failure of free market society. I suppose from a Marxist POV, it has failed.