Moral and Material Incentives

The controversy over the relative merits of "moral" and "material" incentives has turned into a major battleground of the verbal war within and among the socialist nations. The resolution of this crucial debate will decisively affect the course of socialism everywhere, for effective systems of incentives tap enormous reservoirs of creative energy which might otherwise be wasted. By governing behaviour, incentives directly affect the rate of economic growth, and by governing consciousness, they indirectly accelerate or retard the emergence of socialist man. Incentives are therefore a principal means of shaping the fragment of history under the influence of living men, as well as an important index to the economic, social, and moral future of socialist societies