The Dreaded Fairness Doctrine

[groovedaddy]

Researchers recently announced the results of a study about dogs and fairness that sheds new light on the auto industry bailout debate. Trust me. There’s going to be a connection. But first, the scientific news: Folks at the University of Vienna conducted a test in which dogs were asked to shake hands over and over and over again. If you have any experience with dogs, you will not be surprised to hear that they were absolutely delighted. And they didn’t care about being paid! The opportunity to perform the same trick endlessly with a stranger in a white coat was reward enough.

Then the researchers brought in new dogs that were given a piece of bread as a reward for every handshake. The uncompensated dogs watched, lost their innate love of mindless repetition and grew sullen.

“They get so mad that they look at you and just don’t give you the paw anymore,” said Friederike Range, one of the scientists.

So O.K. Dogs are secretly obsessed with fairness. (And bread. Who knew?)

Now, let’s turn our attention to the U.S. Senate where a plan to bail out the auto industry went down the drain Thursday night. It was a stopgap measure, not necessarily the best bill in the world — although it did pass my own personal quality-control test, which is to find out what Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama thinks and go the other way.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/13/opinion/13collins.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

[Orrex]

1. I've heard compensation explained this way:

You can't pay low-end workers more, because they'd lose all incentive to work.

and

You can't pay high-end executives less, because they'd lose all incentive to work.



Sounds fair to me...

[elleng]

2. Any mammal

can obsess about fairness. (Did I mention how ticked off monkeys get if they find out they’re getting cucumbers while somebody in the next cage has a grape?) The real human trick is to get past the quid pro quo and try to focus on the common good.

Set a better example, guys. It’s two years until the next election.