Love. You can't buy it.
Love is the biggest force in the economy and it appears in no accounts. The market can't make it, so it farms it, and the moment you pay for it, it evaporates.
THE GIST ON LOVE: "You can't buy it"
What happened at the Haifa daycare centres?
In 1998, ten daycare centres in Haifa had a problem with parents arriving late. Economists helped them introduce a fine of around three quid, and lateness doubled.
The guilt of keeping the teacher waiting had been the system. So they removed the fine, and the lateness stayed. The guilt never came back.
Why can't you buy love?
There are two economies. The gift economy, freely given, nothing held to ransom. And the market, which is very good at its job, but whose only tool for getting more of something is to pay for it.
Pay for love and it evaporates. You can't buy it into existence, only convert it into something cheaper.
Where does the market farm it?
The market knows this, which is why the same cake costs three times more when it's for a wedding, and why the ring costs two months' salary. Care work pays less than equivalent jobs because the nurse won't abandon her patients, and the wages price that in.
One clumsy payment, like a favour repaid with a transfer asking for petrol money, and it never comes back.
What have we converted already?
Childcare, priced. Elder care, priced. Company itself, priced. Which is how you get a loneliness epidemic and a booming companionship industry in the same country at the same time.
When goodwill has a price, it stops being good. And then what have we got left?
Should care work be paid more?
Your take. One tap, then see how everyone else voted.
Quick answers
What happened at the Haifa daycare centres?
In 1998 ten centres introduced a fine of around three quid for late parents and lateness doubled. When the fine was removed, the lateness stayed.
Why does paying for love make it disappear?
The gift economy runs on things freely given. Put a price on one and it converts into something cheaper, and it doesn't come back.
Why does care work pay less?
Huw says the nurse won't abandon her patients, and the wages price that in.
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