Jwill's Log

Source: Boston.com
I found this article on Boston.com a little while ago.

The racket came from the dark kitchen area, and it startled David Crest as he slept in the office of his Hanover catering business. He suspected he was being burglarized again, and as he crept toward the noise, he grabbed the Mossberg 500 12-gauge shotgun he had kept by his side.

“Freeze,” he screamed. Crest believed he had finally caught the culprit who had taken thousands of dollars in meats, alcohol, and equipment from the shop. But when he flicked on the lights, still aiming his shotgun, and saw the intruder, he felt betrayed like never before: It was, he said, his head chef.

Since Mr. Crest had quite a bit of property stolen from his catering property, he decided to take matters into his own hands. He went to sleep in his office, with a shotgun nearby. When he heard rustling at night, he went out with his gun to check to see if he found his burglar. He realized it was his head chef, held out his shotgun, and fired warning shots at the ground as the thief ran to his car. Crest also fired two shots trying to aim for the thief’s tires. There’s a whole controversy on whether he was right to wait in his workplace to find the assailant and if firing the warning shots was actually a good move. Some people back the assailant, claiming he was unarmed, but I don’t think we should hold something like that to one who is a victim of robbery. He’s pretty brave for sticking it out and finding out who was stealing his product; I applaud him for that.

Just as there is no reason for a firm to produce as much as it possibly can, there is no reason for me to be as nice as I possibly can. Firms that overproduce lose money, and people that are overly nice get stepped on and lose authority. Economics calls for an optimal output of goods, and I will follow suit by calling for an optimal output of kindness. Sometimes, one will over-stretch and it will be asked whether this person has a motive or something of that sort. Sometimes, people are kind “just because”, but it is not interpreted as such. Economics has also taught me that positive externalities, benefits to people other than the producer, are subsidized because not enough of the good that is causing this positive externality is being produced. In other words, this subsidy is an incentive to produce more or a bonus. One will realize that if there are not enough nice people in the world, it is because there is no subsidy, no benefit for being nice. There is not always an incentive for a person to be nicer, so why should they be? If it feels like a wasted effort, people will probably think that it is a wasted effort. If people do not gain a benefit from being nice that would encourage them to continue doing it, they will not be as nice. Similarly, if a company does not get an incentive for producing something that has good effects on society, they will not produce as much.