Car horns.
Everyone has heard them, almost everyone has used them.
Let’s examine 2 perspectives, the honker, and the rest of the world.
First, the obvious. Honking is a 1 person activity.
Being on the receiving end is a multi-person activity. You cannot opt-out of a multi-party honk event. (1 Honker can ‘damage’ 10 people. It’s an asymmetric game.)
This ties directly to incentives and penalties.
I’ve written about taxing sugar imports in the past, and this is another example of a non-penalized activity that damages ‘the commons.’
Let’s first look at the current world: When I honk from inside the car, I barely hear myself. The car cabin is noise proof and I can honk as much as I’d like, with no ‘payment’ in the form of noise, disruption, etc. I can be on a phone call, listening to the radio, or anything else.
Let’s imagine another world in which damage is applied correctly to the honker. When they press the button, several things happen:
- Any call they are on is immediately ended.
- Any music/radio/etc playing is paused.
- The audio from the honk is also played inside the car.
In this world, the penalty is now (somewhat) equally applied to the honker. In the case of a real emergency, or even an inconvenience, the honker experiences some level of the ‘pain’ they’ve applied to the outside world. For each honk, they now need to consider if the penalty (disruption) is worth it.
How does this version of Skin in the Game apply outside of car horns?
Imagine if the creators of any medication were required to take it before launching it to the world? Usually a positive benefit.
What if creators of a new type of pepper spray were required to feel it before launching?
Influencers were required to wear their branded clothing and take their own supplements before marketing it?
For each instance, it adds a level of accountability and thought to any damaging activity.