incentives.

I just began reading "Super Freakonomics" the follow-up to "Freakonomics".

At the most basic level both books are about one concept:

People respond to incentives.

This is the story of mankind.

People make decisions based on what they are going to get out of it. The incentives vary from situation to situation but they are always there.

Even acts of "selfless" service are self-serving.

Why do you serve?

You may not expect to get anything in return.

You may not even be doing it because you expect blessings.

You may be at the pinnacle of righteousness and everything you do is done simply because you love the Lord.

But -- if that is the case then you serve because you get the satisfaction of knowing you have shown your love for the Lord through your obedience and service.

Now that we've established that all decisions are incentive based the key is to find the incentives that get people to do things.

"... consider the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual..." (Mosiah 2:41)

Incentive: Blessings -- both temporal and spiritual.

So why are we disobedient?

Simply, we find the incentive to disobey more enticing than the incentive to be obedient.

Why?

No, but seriously... Why?