Episode 286 is here! First the gang discusses the book ‘Moral Tribes’ by Joshua Greene. Next Elan looks into whether bribing kids leads to better school grades. Lastly Adam looks into whether we commit three felonies a day.
Download direct: mp3 file
If you like the show, please leave us a review on itunes.
SHOW NOTES
Bribing Kids For Grades
NY Times Parenting Blog: The Accumulated Wisdom on Bribing Your Children
Time article about Fryer’s experiments
Telegraph: Use Cash Bribes to Boost Pupils Grades Schools Told
3 Felonies a Day
I used to do standup comedy, initially for free and later for money. When people would ask, “How did it go?”, my usual response had been “I had a blast” but later it became “I made forty bucks”. Hmm maybe the “bribe” wasn’t entirely a positive thing.
About “three felonies…” it sounds like the book is pretty worthless, but I agree with what I think one of the author’s intended themes might have been: If we have a lot of dumb laws on the books, which most people don’t object to because they would never actually be enforced, or have never been enforced, they can become opportunities for government to harass innocent citizens.
As a former deputy sheriff in the late 80s and 90s, I have to say your 3 Felonies a Day segment was crap and reeks of white privilege. And making fun of the current state of our law enforcement situation is heartless. As a privileged white person, you have little to fear from the runaway police and prison state
Its easy to have 3 felonies a day. Do you have any expired Tylenol 3 in your medicine cabinet? Don’t piss a cop off; you could end up in a rape cage. That’s 1 crime per day, per medication, and any that may have an opioid, most steroids, and most stimulants and depressants, or other certain ‘scheduling’ are a felony.
Adding +1 to an algorithmic url creator is somehow a felony and has resulted in a felony conviction.
Money laundering? Possession of anything the government doesn’t like. Supporting certain Palestinian peace groups the State Dept says you can’t, but your tax money goes to Israel to kill innocents?
Littering over 3 times in Chicago?
Google stupid felonies, and then realize these laws are occasionally applied. “We are a nation of laws, stupidly written and randomly enforced”, as the saying goes.
I realize you have little to fear from ‘the system’. Several of you make your living in it and are doing quite well by it. But don’t make fun of the way it is tyrannically used against the least of our population. And the racism inherent it the system is outrageous, which you failed to address. Have a heart. We imprison vastly more of our people than any other nation, including North Korea and China. Not to mention the cost of this prison planet is bankrupting our grandchildren. Don’t laugh this off. This is not funny, and hopefully someday a majority of people will be able to see what our in’justice system’ is doing to a peaceful people.
Great episode.
There is a body of research on how monetary rewards affect job productivity and satisfaction that may nicely complement your segment on bribing kids:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc
I wonder whether you covered that in a episode.