While enjoying our coffee this morning, the wife and I were listening to this podcast from NPR’s Planet Money. There is a new podcast from Planet Money twice a week and we are a week or so behind. I will not go into details about this particular podcast but I recommend listening to it as it is worth 20 minutes of your time.
The story looked into a short period of time when the Red Cross started to charge the US soldiers for doughnuts during WWII. Despite the fact that they were told to do this by the US government and despite the fact that they protested before following orders, some veterans still hold the Red Cross in a bad light for this one thing that happened 70 years ago. Toward the end of the podcast they talk to several economists about why this one thing has had a life of its own for so long. One economist’s hypothesis focused on the concept of “free” and how the relationship changes between two parties when something goes from free to not free.
In one example of this hypothesis the economist asked us to assume how we would react to being asked by your mother to pay $10 after finishing Thanksgiving dinner. You would not question that $10 was not a fair price for the meal but it would dynamically change your relationship with your mother from family member to service (for a fee) provider. It would tarnish everything going forward and they way you interact with her would forever change. This is what happened with the veterans and the Red Cross. They way that the veterans viewed the Red Cross changed since their relationship went from one thing to another.
Now, with most things in life, my take away from listening to this was different than the wife’s. She took away what most people took away, namely that companies have to be careful in dealing with their customers. There are actions that are taken that, while they could be quickly reversed, would take years (or in the case of the Red Cross, decades) to repair. Instead, I thought about how I might charge for things that I give away for free (like the mother in the example charging for Thanksgiving dinner).
For the most part, the rest of my immediate family (that is to say, the wife and kids) are very touchy / feely people. They like physical contact, hugs, kisses, etc. I am not against this but there are times when I prefer not to be touched (or for that matter near anyone). Sometimes I don’t like it when someone, even my kids, just run up and hug me with no forewarning. This probably sounds absurd to most of you but the kids have learned (for better or for worse) to announce first that they are going to hug me before diving in with the affection. I know that some day I will look back on this issue of mine and know that I was in the wrong but for not it is what it is. But this podcast got me thinking, what if I charged for hugs and kisses?
Come with me for a moment on this crazy thought. My goal is to be happy and if my level of happiness is lowered by making others happy then I need to associate a cost for their happiness to compensate for my loss of happiness. If I could set a price per hug then the child (or the wife) could decide if the happiness that they would get (by my hug) is worth the cost of that hug. Since the kids only get so much for allowance then there would be a limit to how many hugs that I would have to give out. I see my own veterans / Red Cross issue forming though.
I see several problems with this (besides the painfully obvious ones like me being seen as an unfit parent). First, there are times when I am more inclined to give out hugs for a lower price or even free. If I were to set a price for hugs then it would have to be a price that went up and down, probably on an hourly basis. This would involve having to set up some sort of index that showed the current value / price of a hug. Even if I could set this up, my kids, not being dummies, would probably just wait until the price was low (or free) and horde my hugs creating instability in the hug market. Also, it is possible that they could simply get hugs from the other source (my wife) as she would undercut me in this market and cut my profits (it is hard to compete with free). Oh, I could market my hugs as being “worth it” or “higher quality” than her hugs, but that would involve work as well not to mention having to give out free samples to prove my claims. The market might just decide to put me out of business. What would I do then if I needed / wanted a hug?
So, as you might imagine, I have decided not to implement this “pay for hugs” program in my household. A special note to the wife. Honey, you know those times when I am staring off into space deep in thought and you ask me what I am thinking? And you now how I almost always answer, “Oh, nothing.” or “You don’t want to know.”? Well, this morning was one of those times. It is a dangerous thing sometimes to ask me what is on my mind.
Jon
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