army1987 comments on Defeating Ugh Fields In Practice - Less Wrong
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Since positive reinforcement is generally more effective than punishment, we could apply this idea across society.
Why pay police officers to sit on the side of the road all day, pulling over speeders and writing citations? How about automated cameras that can randomly reward drivers with $10-$20 for driving the speed limit? Shouldn't we expect more safe drivers and less overall expense?
Even if it were proven effective, the reason it won't take off with traffic or medication is that most people want to see wrong-doers punished more than they want to see less wrong-doing. Don't take your meds? You deserve your illness. Speeding (even though I do it too)? You deserve your $250 fine. You did the right thing? Woopty-do. What, you want a cookie?
I've heard that in some places they have deliberately unrealistically low speed limits because fines are a sizeable fraction of the municipality's revenues.