Week 15 Reflection -- Coercion vs. Cooperation

In a lecture given by Dr. Antony Davies, he discusses the difference between cooperation and coercion and how every human interaction is by either of these two methods. Cooperation is when society joins together and freely does things on a voluntary basis. Coercion is a sort of compulsion where you feel as if you almost have to or must do something due to force. When talking about coercion, Dr. Davies mentions how there is a problem of regulatory capture where the government doesn't have enough knowledge or understanding to make decisions for society that we wouldn't just be better equipped to decide for ourselves. I completely agree with this statement, as I wrote in my discussion response I feel that it is better for individuals to decide freely so that we can learn and grow rather than having a situation forced onto us that we may not understand and will not help us. Political profit is brought up as well, and Dr. Davies discusses how politicians and people in power will make decisions that support their own best interest over the actual best interest of the people it affects. This situation I feel is a huge and clear problem, as I feel this is very common in the political climate and needs to be addressed. I think this problem also ties in with the fact that a majority of people in the political field are motivated by money, and thus will naturally be inclined to do what profits them the most and not what would profit others. I think that if we were to try and fix this issue it would just create less incentives for people to go into this career field and care enough. This is a common issue when discussing career wages and similar things, but I think this is an important issue to fix. I think that when Dr. Davies discusses the issue of electrical licensing requirements and how the intended result backfired, I think that this situation connects with the dilemma discussed earlier, as home owners were less willing to pay the higher prices for the better quality electricians. Money is a huge factor in both these interactions, and either side is affected in both situations. However, I feel that the best situation is to apply the interaction of cooperation in order to benefit the majority of society and allow free will and self decisions. I thought that Dr. Davies brings an interesting perspective to coercion, as he discusses many examples of the governments attempt to use coercion on society and it backfires due to society reacting a way not anticipated by the government. I think that the examples discussed bring up interesting points, as most of the reasoning behind them and intent was seemingly good and beneficial for everyone but society wanted to do something different to get what they want. I think that this is extremely interesting, as you would think that most people would want to do the beneficial thing. I think that we need to use the method of cooperation, however, in order to better get people to do the right thing and appreciate things a ton more. I think it is almost like when parenting a kid and you want them to do chores, you can't force them or even sometimes bribe them, but teaching them to care and why we do certain things leaves a more lasting and important message.