An Economic Context
By Laurence Sotsky
It was surreal to see cities ravaged by looters and accelerationists and the righteously angry - I watched stores I know get torn apart. And I sincerely support the right to protest and understand that as a non-Black American, I do not understand some deep level of the impact associated with these videos and the reality to which they offer but a glimpse. Still, it is so painful to see the breakdown of communities and the general maelstrom. Sirens all night and texts from family always asking the same thing, “Are you all right?” I’m sure many of you experienced similar things.
Lost amidst the [very important] racial and political discussions of power and enfranchisement is a more basic reality which I believe to be intrinsic to my personal mission as a person as well as our company mission here at Incentify:
Economic opportunity.
Certainly many looters sought to make a political point or to express some pain or dissatisfaction...many others were just poor people who saw a chance to get cold cuts for the next two weeks. To get diapers, to hoard some shoes and maybe sling a few back for rent. I’m not defending their crimes but I think to contextualize looters solely in the diad created by political dynamics fails to get at the reality facing all too many Americans:
They’re poor. They are desperately poor and by the grace of God go I who does not have to choose between looting and feeding their kids. Yes I worked hard, harder than most I’m sure. But the real question is not whether or not I deserve to be gainfully employed but rather, what the effect of so many people being unemployed is.
People need money or fires start. And the way our civilization works is that to have money, the great majority of us need to have a job. That is the world in which we live. C&I creates jobs. That is its absolute bread and butter - the creation of good middle-class jobs. Or rather, it should create jobs.
Too many companies treat C&I like some easily monetized asset on a spreadsheet. A billion dollars of toilet paper or hummus, just a line item on a spreadsheet. In so doing, these powerful organizations fail not only to realize the monetary value of the C&I, but the jobs connected to that C&I fail to materialize. I’m not such a starry eyed idealist as to suggest that C&I would save the world or even that every single looter would have had a good gig making $60k if every C&I were managed on Incentify - that’s asinine. But what if 2% of those looters were taken off the street with a good gig? 5%?
Thresholds matter when it comes to macro events. C&I can play a huge role in getting us closer to the threshold whereby fewer people have a rational consideration for stealing baloney from the looted Subway. If we can make it as a society below whatever that number is, then police can keep the lid on Pandora’s Box and we don’t have to live with 4PM curfews and sirens all night.
Incentify is a vehicle that companies can use so that their C&I can contribute to the societal bottom line as well as their own - we actually do make companies a lot of money! This isn’t some act of holy altruism. Good business should be good for society, that’s one of the central effects of The Lynchpin Asset.
Stay safe everyone - I know that 2020 has held more than its fair share of disaster and we’re not even halfway through. It won’t be this way forever but in the meantime, stay safe.