Perverse Incentives and the US Army
Reevaluating Incentive Structures
I’m an economics nerd. While I majored in mechanical engineering, econ was my passion, and I was so close to a double-major. Oh well. I suppose that’s what grad school is for. Anyways, one of my favorite concepts from the discipline is incentives. You might think of economics as the study of money, but a more widely accepted understanding is the study of scarcity or the study of choices under constraints. So boiled down, money is just a framework for really studying choices. That’s why it can bounce between business and social sciences departments; it’s heavy on psychology.
When I think of incentives, my mind immediately jumps to the “cobra effect.” From Wikipedia:
The term cobra effect originated in an anecdote that describes an occurrence during India under British rule. The British government was concerned about the number of venomous cobras in Delhi. The government therefore offered a bounty for every dead cobra. Initially this was a successful strategy as large numbers of snakes were killed for the reward. Eventually, however, enterprising people began to breed cobras for the income. When the government became aware of this, the reward program was scrapped, causing the cobra breeders to set the worthless snakes free; the wild cobra population further increased.
One of the strongest points author Safi Bahcall articulates in his book, Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries, is the idea of a company (or organization) appointing a Chief Incentives Officer whose sole purpose is to evaluate the incentive structures within. The military could greatly benefit from a realignment of their incentives.
Three strong examples of perverse incentives that come to mind regarding the military:
Medical
I’m a pilot-in-training at Ft. Rucker and recently got super light-headed after PT. I nearly passed out (probably fatigue and dehydration), so Cadre had me get labs done just as a precaution, thinking it might have been blood sugar. I was put on a down-slip (i.e. no training) until bloodwork and an echocardiogram came back. I missed my start date for the next training course, which made me pretty bitter. I understand the idea of wanting a helicopter pilot to not involuntarily blackout, but that wasn’t what happened.
In airing my grievances to some fellow LTs (as LTs do), one mentioned getting stung by a wasp and breaking out in hives. LT X got permission to go to UrgentCare (after declining to call 911) to get something simple to clear it up. That’s an automatic down-slip, which the LT didn’t know. That LT got pulled from Common Core and has to wait for the next course to come around in about a month.
So to clarify, the culture of Aviation is to suck it up and say nothing, in case it prevents you from flying. That is clearly the opposite of ensuring pilots are at their peak health while flying multi-million-dollar airframes complete with expensive equipment and priceless Soldiers as cargo.
WiFi
In the recent past, there were security concerns at drill about doing government work on WiFi, so it was removed for us M-day folks. Well, the requirements for online training, etc. were not reevaluated, and the supply of government-issued laptops is very limited. What was the solution? Mobile hotspots. Great. Mobile hotspots have got to be more secure, right? 🤦🏼♂️
Ammo
An all-too-common situation on Range Day is a surplus of ammo left over after everyone has qualified on their weapon system. It is far simpler (i.e. less paperwork and/or questions) to use up all the ammo than to turn unspent ammunition back in. What is the unspoken solution? It gets wasted in a bush. In an age of increasing transparency and scrutiny of military budgets, this seems like a simple fix. There has to be a better way to turn in ammo. Perhaps an amnesty system similar to the amnesty boxes already on installations could be implemented. Units can train to the standard, not to the requested supply. The extra ammo gets collected like brass does and sent back for inspection or kept within the unit for the next range.
Conclusion
In my brief encounter with the Army thus far, there has been nothing more frustrating than proposing a newer, more efficient way of doing something only to be shot down with the classic, “That’s just the way the Army has always done it.” The Army needs to take a deep look at its internal incentive structures, especially with the urgent push for recruiting and retention. If you don’t believe me, just take a look at the comments on r/Armyaviation’s 10 year ADSO is official post.
