Perverse Incentives....The Cobra Bounty Effect

[1srelluc]

The phrase "perverse incentive" is often used in economics to describe an incentive structure with undesirable results, particularly when those effects are unexpected and contrary to the intentions of its designers.​

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The Cobra Bounty: A Historical Lesson​

During British colonial rule in India, the city of Delhi faced an infestation of cobras. To address the problem, officials offered a bounty for each dead cobra turned in. At first, the initiative appeared successful as people brought in significant numbers of cobras for payment.

However, the promise of money for dead cobras led some enterprising individuals to breed cobras specifically to cash in on the bounty. Cobra farms quickly became common, and when the government realized the flaw in their plan and ended the program, breeders released their cobras into the wild. Instead of solving the problem, the incentive made it worse, increasing the cobra population.

This counterproductive outcome gave rise to the term “The Cobra Effect,” a warning about the dangers of poorly designed incentives.

Perverse incentive - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

It seems to me that half of what the .gov does is counterproductive.....

The thing is that the .gov never seems to realize that what they are doing is counterproductive and doubles down on whatever it is when a problem is pointed out to them and proved to be counterproductive instead of ending whatever it is.

Examples abound like the EV push and every .gov grant to the states program with .gov strings attached that so messes-up what they were trying to do that it's unworkable.....Like "broadband for everyone" and EV chargers.

 

[Innocynioc]

This makes sense to me.

 

[martybegan]

The phrase "perverse incentive" is often used in economics to describe an incentive structure with undesirable results, particularly when those effects are unexpected and contrary to the intentions of its designers.​

​

The Cobra Bounty: A Historical Lesson​

During British colonial rule in India, the city of Delhi faced an infestation of cobras. To address the problem, officials offered a bounty for each dead cobra turned in. At first, the initiative appeared successful as people brought in significant numbers of cobras for payment.

However, the promise of money for dead cobras led some enterprising individuals to breed cobras specifically to cash in on the bounty. Cobra farms quickly became common, and when the government realized the flaw in their plan and ended the program, breeders released their cobras into the wild. Instead of solving the problem, the incentive made it worse, increasing the cobra population.

This counterproductive outcome gave rise to the term “The Cobra Effect,” a warning about the dangers of poorly designed incentives.

Perverse incentive - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

It seems to me that half of what the .gov does is counterproductive.....

The thing is that the .gov never seems to realize that what they are doing is counterproductive and doubles down on whatever it is when a problem is pointed out to them and proved to be counterproductive instead of ending whatever it is.

Examples abound like the EV push and every .gov grant to the states program with .gov strings attached that so messes-up what they were trying to do that it's unworkable.....Like "broadband for everyone" and EV chargers.

Similar to the concept of "subsidizing bad behavior gives you more of it."

Making it too easy to not work, have kids (either as a woman and using government funds to take care of them, or as a man having kids with multiple women and abandoning them) and have no reason to improve yourself gives you more of the problem, not less.