Ok- beyond the "you just got served!" post above-- here is how my econ prof's showed it to us:
Get a monopoly game for your computer-- now play it w/ two motivations. 1- win. And then 2- win w/ as much money as possible at the end. To succeed at the 2nd requires cooperation among the players. You can snuff them all out quickly if you're good and lucky--- and end up w/ $2000 of monopoly money- or you can keep the engine going, get all the players to pass go a bunch and win w/ $20,000...your choice.
Ever wonder why anti-"trust" is named that? There are responsibilities to holding wealth and purse-strings. It's no coicidence that Southwest has the most productive pilots. Management keeps their promises... Every other airline needs to hire 3 pilots to do the work of 2 b/c we just don't give a damn anymore. So... they won- b/c they got their concession--- but did they win? Now they have more taxes and health insurance to pay for for the extra pilot, but no more productivity than if they had treated us right to begin with. Actually -even if you get the flight done-- how well was it done? Anyone enjoying the major airline experience these days? Customer? Pax? Employees? Investors? I can't even imagine the managers are all that stoked.
People say atheletes are so over-paid to play a game. Of course, it's a game. But it's a good question. There's an argument the athletes are so good now b/c of the incredible money they make. This makes demand for the sport and all the products increase - and thus more money for managers, owners, vendors, etc...In this case, their union created MUCH MORE value for the owners by fighting for their right to the money. When they were paid scraps, the product wasn't worth paying for because the athletes were mediocre. Now that they get a percentage of the business- the athletes are so tremendous, the sky is the limit to profits on both sides of the labor battle b/c we all want to see another human do such amazing things.
There is a point where you can pay people so little- the value goes down where noone wants that product. We are the talent in the airline industry. We start crashing, and noone will buy our tickets, of course. But in essence, it's already happened. We don't crash, sure- but we surely aren't motivated to perform our best... which leads to a mediocre product that the customer doesn't want to pay more than the min for. That equals weak companies-- and management doesn't even bring home what they could have.
Ahh... but they still are bringing home the windfalls b/c of how much money passes through their hands....
Allowing the rewarding of incompetence is this country's biggest problem right now.
