Quote:
Originally Posted by Ma'ake
I don't know if that's true. Many of the innovative breakthroughs in medical research are coming from the UK, for example, which has a healthcare model that goes far beyond the Canadian model. (MDs are state employees. For a lot of good reasons, this model won't fly here.)
In my organization, we have a very highly motivated work force, more than I've seen at any of the private orgs I've been at in my 20+ in IT. We have no profit incentive, though we definitely have a very conservative, finite bottom line.
In my experience, nearly everyone wants to do a good job, they have a good work ethic. It seems to me that productivity is almost always tied to good leadership & management, which exists in many organizations, public & private.
I've known many young parents who took advantage of social programs to go to college, nearly all of whom did better in school because of it, and now make more money & produce more for society (including tax revenue) than if they were left to struggle through on their own. It was a very wise investment in people. (For single parents, the program produced a very high return.)
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Risk is tied to reward, Ma'ake. Sure there are self-motivated people who will try to do a good job no matter what station they find themselves in. But in a capitalist system what drives innovation and risk-taking is reward.
I listened to a replay last night of a 2 hour interview Hugh Hewitt did with Victor Davis Hanson. He spoke of having appendicitis and requiring an emergency operation in Libya, I think it was. As he lay there recovering, he reflected on the system there that required the doctor who operated on him to be compensated exactly equally with the guy who mopped the floors.
In such a system, why try to excel? Your overachievers might anyway, out of pure type-A drive, but society as a whole will not.