Remember the experience at the traffic crossing? You are first in the queue, as when you approached it, the traffic light transitioned from yellow to red. You expect to get out first but to your dismay, the path is blocked by two-wheeler and cars who arrived much later. You feel disgusted, but for most, it is now a way of life. The situation is not unique to the traffic crossings but emulates in all the aspects of our lives — be it railway ticketing counters, hospitals, banks, jobs, access to govt schemes, and bottleneck resources etc. We always find someone trying to jump the line by disregarding all others ahead in the queue.
Why do we behave in this manner?
There could be many reasons. First, maybe we are genuinely in a hurry and therefore cannot afford to wait. Second, we are opportunistic and always trying to take undue advantage of every situation we encounter. Third, we fear a “loss of opportunity” due to the scarcity of resources that we are trying to access. Fourth, the incentives and disincentives aren’t strong enough to force a responsible behavior. Fifth, the urge to manipulate each time is so strong that we simply cannot think of a better way to make progress.
How does it impact our daily lives?
It slows us all down. Traffic jams at intersections are mainly caused due to signals not working, or someone trying to illegally cross over by breaking rules. The result is a long wait for all concerned. But we are not willing to learn from our past experience. Instead, we are all confident of our ability to game the system, each time and every time we get an opportunity. This mindset has deeply entrenched into all aspects of our lives — be it us jumping a simple queue or manipulating the system to get cheap access to public resources. Isn’t the past “policy paralysis” (a reaction to scams), nothing but analogous to traffic jams? And just like traffic jams, did it not slow down the economy — shrinking the “overall pie” and decreasing the share of all individuals?
What can we do to improve the situation?
We have to sharpen our intelligence to understand that gaming the system impacts everyone, including the one trying to manipulate it. Hence, the only way to create wealth is to increase the “overall pie” — possible only if we play by rules. The proliferation of information technologies (IT) has enhanced the “cost of corruption” significantly, by making it increasingly difficult to hide our actions (due to the footprints the system enables). Hence, we need to promote electronic transactions as much as possible.
The urge to game the system is the legacy of the past when one could easily get away due to the absence of monitoring tools. Who will like to jump a red light if a camera is installed at all crossings recording all movements? Similarly, innovative regulations, coupled with the extensive use of IT can significantly reduce manipulative practices in business transactions — quickly transitioning our society from “Last Come, First Serve” to “First Come, First Serve”.
