My family have decided that I am too sarcastic. I concurred. So, I agreed to sign an anti-sarcasm contract :
“Under pain of having to donate $1 toward Lego for every infraction, I hereby declare my intention to eschew sarcasm.”
The kids were making $8/day for the first few days till I learned a little self-control. So far so good.
Then, weird little things started happening. A child would ask innocently: “Can we have second dessert?” Or “Can I skip homework today?” etc. I would unfortunately respond with sarcasm.
I realized that the attempt to deal with my sarcasm by giving me incentives had created another incentive problem. I tried to change the contract so the money goes to charity but my kids refused to renegotiate….Is there some corollary of the Holmstrom moral hazard in teams model that says our it is impossible to implement optimal incentives with budget balance?
7 comments
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January 20, 2012 at 9:17 am
David
Incentives matter!
January 20, 2012 at 11:05 am
tomslee
If you signed the contract sarcastically, does it count?
January 20, 2012 at 8:08 pm
Alan Gunn
A nice example of the paradox of compensation. Let victims recover damages so that negligence will be deterred and, surprise, people become less careful about not becoming victims.
January 21, 2012 at 2:26 am
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January 22, 2012 at 12:30 pm
sarm
Hi, I don’t usually comment on strange posts but I am sarcastic myself from a sarcastic family. According to Holmstrom you have to increase your efforts to give non-sarcastic replies. Your children are providing a steep learning curve. I don’t recommend my solution – silence.
June 17, 2012 at 3:34 am
BigAudio
I am married to a sarcastic man and I am searching online for ways to respond to sarcasm. I wish he would sign an anti-sarcasm contract too. I feel strongly that your children are testing to see if you have really developed more self-restraint. They are pushing your buttons, not for the money, but to check if they can really trust you to respond directly and assertively to their requests! It would be a shame to label their behavior greedy without acknowledging that your new contract is only meaningful if your can honor it under challenging circumstances.
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