Change behaviour with environment

While house hunting, my daughter’s family mentioned they were considering buying an acreage. I discouraged her, saying she would regret the lost time and money spent commuting for work, extracurricular trips, and recreation. She explained they could afford the house with no neighbours. The equivalent urban house with neighbours would be in a neighbourhood littered with needles and tagged with graffiti. I stopped discouraging her because I knew my grandchildren would be shaped for better or worse by their external environment.

Researcher Malcolm Gladwell in Tipping Point wrote, “Studies of juvenile delinquency and high school dropout rates, for example, demonstrate that a child is better off in a good neighbourhood and a troubled family than he or she is in a troubled neighbourhood and a good family.”

We have been reactively expecting the prison system to rehabilitate criminals when we could be proactively preventing crime by changing environmental signals. Gladwell presents evidence that we can change behaviour by cleaning up signals, like needles and graffiti, that invite crime.

Thanks to my daughter’s wisdom, my grandchildren are growing up in a good family in an untroubled neighbourhood. Acreage living is not a solution for all families, though. Would guaranteed annual income (GAI) change the housing low-income families could afford? If you would like to find out, take action. Contact your government representatives. Ask about GAI in leadership races and elections. Most importantly, promote the idea around your kitchen table with children, family, friends, and neighbours.

Nancy Carswell, Shellbrook