Thursday
A neat example of Keith Weiner’s ‘perverse incentives produce perverse outcomes’.
“Yi blamed not only government attempts to hide the real data for the discrepancies in numbers, but widespread corruption at the local level. Parents reportedly purchase birth certificates from hospitals for babies that do not exist to receive more public benefits; local governments do not mind the purchases if a perceived growth in population also means Beijing will send them more funding.”
A free market incentivises honesty. Central planning incentivises corruption. How much central planning can a society bear before it collapses?