FIRST Fundraiser: Selling LED "Lightbulbs"

[Katie_UPS]

"According to Matthew Rabin of Berkley University people put off planning for the future because it requires a tremendous amount of time and effort."

Read into this: People generally don't like thinking about/planning out the(ir) future.

"Economists once assumed that consumers always make rational money decisions based on what's best for them. It fit neatly into their economic models. But it's not that simple." -Chicago Tribune

Read into this: You would think people would make decisions based off what's cheaper in the long run, but they don't.

"The study, conducted through the BBC website with over 40,000 participants, measured people's financial impulsivity by asking whether they would they prefer to receive £45 in three days or £70 in three months. The survey asked a related series of questions about other behaviours. Nearly half of those who responded preferred the smaller-sooner sum of money, and these people were more likely to show a raft of other impulsive behaviours."

Read into this: More than half of the people would rather get £45 now than £70 later. You can apply this to savings: people would rather save 20 dollars (estimated) now and buy cheap bulbs, than save X (greater than 20) over time any buy expensive bulbs. You see this with food too: processed vs. natural- many will argue that natural/unprocessed food is better for you, but processed food is cheaper/easier.

I'm not a major in Psychology-I've only had one year in high school- but studies repeatedly show that people don't think logically.

Personally, I'm against this. Its a step in the right direction, but not really with the right foot. I'm glad that FIRST is trying to help out teams but I'd rather see the Google money being spent elsewhere.