Cost of Consequence

[airportkid]

I didn't know where to put this but since it's essentially a behavioral issue I'll put it here under "ethics", but if it really should go somewhere else I won't mind if the mods relocate it.

So let's step into a casino for a moment, where there's a special roulette table set up.  Bets can only be placed on single numbers, no odd or even groupings, no red or black, just one number.  Bets are cheap, a bet costs a buck.  And only a buck.  A buck is the maximum; a buck is the minimum.  The wheel is spun, and the ball clatters into a number as the wheel slows.

If the ball hits any number NOT your number, you get your dollar back, and a dime on top of it.  It's not a game to try to get rich playing; even though the odds of getting a dime for your dollar are very good, you still only get a dime each time.  Ho hum.  At 3 minutes a spin you'd make $2.00 a hour.

Not a game you'd choose to play for entertainment.

If the ball land on your number, though, the payout is exponentially different.  If the ball lands on your number, you lose your house, your job, your right arm, your dog, and all the money in your savings accounts.

Are you even going to go near that game?  Even if the roulette wheel had 1000 numbers, would you still stick around picking off easy dimes, knowing that hitting your number, however unlikely, would be devastating?  A game like that would have few players.

You know where that game has lots of players?

On the freeway.

I commute, so I'm on the freeway about 90 minutes every day.  In that 90 minutes I see maneuvers by other drivers trying to "buy time" or just be first that often succeed, and they get a dime for a dollar's worth of effort, but too often a whole lot of us crawl in a backup because one of those maneuvers failed, somewhere up ahead.

The cost of consequence is an aspect of life that I have never seen taught, and don't see any evidence that it is being taught.

But it should be.

[Minimalist]

When I was working I used to  commute almost exclusively on the Long Island Expressway, know to locals as "The World's Longest Parking Lot."  It was difficult to have a serious rush hour accident on most of it...you couldn't build up enough speed.  But that was mainly true in the regions closest to New York City.  I was commuting to Eastern Long Island and once you got past a certain point the traffic diminished considerably.  It was then that I noticed the maniacs coming  out of the woodwork.  I always thought they were trying to make up for the time they had lost crawling in the traffic but that was then and this is now and you are probably right.

Now we have way too many over-indulged, self-important, assholes with an overpowered vehicle who think they have to show  off... like everyone else in this fucking country it seems.

[pattylt]

I have driven rush hour highways in several large cities…Columbus, Ft. Lauderdale, Denver and LA off the top of my head. The minute the traffic opens up, the asses have to make up some perceived amount of time they’ve lost.

Since I’ve also driven all those highways at non rush hours also, I figured out pretty quick that the time difference…unless a really bad accident has happened…amounts to 5-15 minutes difference in a one hour commute. I just planned ahead and let the speed demons go their merry way. I value my life a bit more than my ego.

[Thumpalumpacus]

First off, I'm not big on gambling. I'm not afraid to take a gamble, but I want the numbers stacked in my favor, and the reward to be worth it, if possible.

Speeding on streets to make up a minute or two of time doesn't meet that risk/reward paradigm, so I don't do it. I could get a ticket. I could survive an accident and see my insurance go up. I could kill myself or someone else. It's a lot cheaper to simply say at whatever appointment I'm trying to make that "the traffic sucked." That's cheaper than the other alternatives, any of them, except to my pride.

In a similar vein, getting ten cents for betting the odds on your roulette game, I'd have to make many, many bets to stack those dimes into something meaningful, while one wrong happenstance could wipe me out. The reward isn't worth the risk, over time.

The guiding principle is "calculated risk". Adm Nimitz had this down right.

[SYZ]

Good posting.    

So, in simple terms,  1 dime = 1 minute travel time.

   Not worth it in either case.

[Rhythmcs]

The casino example might also accurately describe those jobs people are rushing to, which may also explain our rush.

[Paleophyte]

Typically the cost of consequences is taught in real life by real life. If you have good parents they teach you at the expense of others who are taking that dime bet and being glorious examples of what not to do.

It's gotten to the point now that all my nieces and nephews will comment from the passenger seat, "There goes another idiot!" and "May you meet with an irate cop!"

[Minimalist]

I love it when some asshole goes flying past me at high speed, and I'm usually 10-12 mph over the limit like everyone else.

"Light up those radar guns ahead, asshole," is my customary thought.  The motorcycles are the worst.  They are constantly scraping one of those idiots off the pavement out here.  Arizona does not even have a helmet law.

[pattylt]

I love it when some asshole goes flying past me at high speed, and I'm usually 10-12 mph over the limit like everyone else.

"Light up those radar guns ahead, asshole," is my customary thought.  The motorcycles are the worst.  They are constantly scraping one of those idiots off the pavement out here.  Arizona does not even have a helmet law.

We have helmet laws here but they’re still Donorcycles…

[Fireball]

Back when I was still working, there was a guy on a Harley (flying club colors, don't recall which) used to white line past all us commuters sitting on the 405 fwy in so Cal. One day a gardener pulling a trailer swerved into the car pool lane. Shouldn't have a trailer out there, methinks. Anyway, this guy got wrapped up in the trailer and pretty messed up, as in chewed up dead. I doubt anything got used, as he baked in the sun awhile during the investigation. Cost me an extra hour on the fwy.