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Rhidian Brook |
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This week, some local authorities have been considering the merits of a Japanese system of giving reward points in order to motivate volunteering. Called 'Caring Relationship Tickets' it allows volunteers to bank the hours they spend helping an elderly or disabled person in a personal 'Time Account' and then claim back the credits for their own care later in life.
Whatever its merits, it could spell the end for that other system of accruing points through doing good deeds: Brownie Points. This hypothetical moral currency was probably named after the brown stamps given out in post-war America; although I prefer the theory that they're named after the badges obtained by Brownies who were themselves named after a mythological elf that does helpful things around the house for nothing.
The trouble is, the elves around our house seem to want payment in a more visible currency. Only this week I paid my son to wash the car and my daughter to do the hoovering, two tasks I'm pretty sure I did for nothing back in the day. Like the government I'm struggling to find a middle way that enables me to be both paternalist and libertarian. Should I nudge the kids into acts of kindness with financial incentives or leave them to do it of their own volition and risk getting nothing done?
Deep down, I'm not sure we can legislate for kindness. Paying people to volunteer sounds like an oxymoron. It would certainly mean re-writing some stories about altruistic deeds: the Good Samaritan wouldn't be the same had his first thought on seeing a battered man in the road been: "Great, this is a chance for me to top up my Caring Points Card." We'd also have to adjust the bumper sticker that says 'volunteers do it for free,' to include the corollary 'just as long as there are incentives.'
It's interesting that groups are warning that rewarding voluntary work undermines the idea of giving your time freely. The dynamic of giving without expectation of a return is changed when financial reward is introduced. Like a spiritual Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, the moment you try and monetise kindness you change its very nature. A few years ago, I met a volunteer in an AIDS programme who had offered his services free for ten years before there was enough money for him to be paid. Although grateful for the salary, he said he'd always felt he had his true reward.
So what is the reward if not money? Some might say (as they say of Brownie Points) that it's all about looking to others and feeling good about yourself; but as Jesus pointed out, the hypocrites liked to do their good deeds for everyone to see, but they already had their reward - namely the approval of men. People don't volunteer because they want recognition; if anything the incentive lies in its hidden opposite. It's said that the great secret of giving freely is that it is its own reward; the trick (as I keep trying to tell my children) is that you won't know this until you try it.
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