If the incentives are correctly aligned all bonuses make sense.

Sir, John Kay in “When a bonus culture is just a poor joke” April 28, that he would have felt insulted if as a teacher he were to receive a bonus from a student on the successful completion of a course.

Why should he feel that way if the incentives were well aligned? You see it is really not the completion of a course that matters, as Kay seems to believe, but what you do in life with that completion. In this respect let me share with Kay some brief paragraphs I posted on one of my umpteenth blogs a couple of years ago.

Don’t give your teacher an apple; offer him a couple of basis points in your earnings instead.

Parent and students need some way of sorting through the reams of college information in order to make rational investments, but may I remind you that even when finding the absolute perfect college that you might benefit from aligning the incentives better.

In this respect what I am currently recommending my young friends when they take off for their MBA is that they offer a couple of basis points on their first 10 years earnings to those teachers they feel could best advance their careers…it makes wonders! 

Aligning the incentives could in the long run also be the best way of getting information for the picking of a college to, as education should in fact be a joint venture between students, teachers, and colleges.