Culver’s Wolf’s Dilemma

Can Culver survive Wolf’s Dilemma?  For those of you that don’t know, there are various versions of Wolf’s Dilemma, but basically it goes as follows:

This is the Dilemma.  A random sample of people are chosen to “play”.

  • You are each placed in a separate booth and cannot communicate with each other at all.
  • In each booth is a button and nothing else.
  • You are required to stay in the booth for 5 minutes during which time you can either press the button or not press it.
  • You do not find out if anyone else pressed the button until the 5 minutes are over.

The Payoff

  • If nobody presses the button during those 5 minutes, then each person gets $100,000.
  • If anyone at all presses the button, then:
    • Each person who pressed the button gets $20,000.
    • Each person who did not press the button gets nothing at all.

Except this is Culver.  Everyone knows everyone else.  Does that make it better or worse?

There seems to be a constant battle between the various factions in Culver.  The Mary Means Study that was completed several years ago referred to these groups as tribes and labeled the main tribes as the Academies, Town, Lake and Ag.  Unfortunately the chiefs and their allegances seem to change depending on what the issue is.  Pardon me for not printing my list here, but I think we can all name an issue or squabble.  If I name even one here I’ll be on one side or another of a group or individual with which I have to work!  At times this goes all the way down to issues between individual board or committee members that are unable to work together.

My point is that we all should quit pushing the button! If we work together for the common good, we would all be better off.  Occasionally we do come together for the common good.  The original formation of the Second Century Committee is an example of this for civic groups.  The Culver Union Township Public Library as well as the EMS and Fire that are under a Town and Township partnership are good examples in the public sector.  We should do it more often.

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