Commitment as currency
When universities made their courses available online, I assumed that would fix everything. With a key barrier removed, access was available for so many more to propel themselves forward.
But that didn't happen.
🤨
I was perplexed. Gold was being given away for free, but the uptake was nowhere near what I expected. And uptake was one problem - completing the courses was another thing.
It took time for me to learn some of the variables at play.
#1 People value things based on what they pay for it
A Freakonomics episode highlighted that when something is free, people value it less. Which makes sense. (Sorry, don't remember the episode and don't have the capacity to look it up)
Imagine there's two bottles of wine on display at a store. On the left, the bottle is advertised at $100. Pricey, but whatevs. Next to it, there's another bottle advertised as free. Even if these two are exactly the same wine but different sticker tags, many people will assume the $100 wine is better.
#2 There are eight forms of capital
Mose economics education reinforces the notion that "capital = money". And now so much of the cultural dogma has led to "you gotta pay me, booooyyy!!!" being the dominant way humans (in the Western Hemisphere) act.
First, this belief structure entirely diminishes the rich, dynamic nuances of human society. Second, the moment it's put under the slightest bit of scrutiny, the way of thinking falls apart quickly.
If people are only driven by money, why do so many Americans volunteer their time annually?
If humans are only driven by money, how did civilizations get built before money was invented?
If we're so driven by money, why am I writing this to you for free!!?!?!!!
Yes, some of us are altruistic, but the real reason is that we collectively care about more than just money. Also, yes, money is still important and a piece of that pie. But we ignore the seven other pieces for this one raggedy slice.
Per Regenerative Enterprise, the eight forms of capital are:
Social: influence and connections
Material: raw materials, products, structures
Financial: money, currency and securities
Living: soil, water, animal, plants
Intellectual: ideas, concepts, knowledge, and “truth”
Experiential: embodied “know-how”
Spiritual: faith, karma, presence
Cultural: shared internal and external experiences of a shared group
I def recommend checking out the Regenerative Enterprise book for more detail on the different forms and how they manifest.
#3 There's no skin in the game
Adding to the points above, if given something for free, that means we didn't give anything up for it besides an open hand. This kind of repeats point #1, but with a focus on actions, not value. For one path, we'd have to give up 100 hard-earned dollars. We'd have to think about other opportunities we're passing up with that $100. But if it's free, it literally doesn't cost us anything - so we don't pause to really think about the tradeoffs of this thing.
Again, going back to the wine bottles - if we paid $100 for wine, it'd be more of a special treat. A wine for special occasions with special people. But, if it's free, we can have it with a bag of potato chips.
Or imagine if you left the store and dropped the wine on accident, causing it to shatter on the sidewalk. Most likely, one of those scenarios causes you to get upset, while the other is real ‘meh’ feeling.
The revelation
When these thoughts swirled together in my head, I had an idea! Since “free” education and other free services often get large numbers to sign up, but low numbers to follow through, we can revisit this problem.
First, we know people will likely value things less if there's little to no monetary value on it. So, if we want people to value things more, lean on another form of capital. Most readily accessible is social capital, in the form of a verbal or written agreement. Not a standard "sign here" contract, but a more to human-to-human touch of “I vow to complete these courses and put that on the credibility of my name!”
Now, we'd have a new way to (1) keep powerful education free/low-cost (read: equitably accessible) and (2) increase the perspective of value by requiring a different form of capital.
Call to action
Now, if you've made it this far in my personal musing - thank you!
But also, my hope is that this influences you to rethink what free means and how we can make people see value in “free” things. Especially thinking of it from an equity standpoint, a lot of people should be getting services and care for free.
But, as new freebies are given away, it's in our best interest to request commitments to make recipients think more about the transaction and place more value on the item being given.