AIDS, virgins, and tuition fees

Heard this on the radio yesterday: a member of the Ugandan parliament offered to pay the tuition fees of any girl in his district who is still a virgin when she starts university. The aim is to prevent AIDS. The method is rather odd, and I don't know if it would work, but the underlying principle - financial rewards for responsible behavior - is a good one.

AIDS destroys lives and so has a measurable cost - raising a child costs a certain amount, and if the child dies, that effort is wasted. Plus their place of work loses a trained employee. Plus everyone they know works less efficiently because they are miserable or scared. ,So the cost is measurable. Sorry to be so cold and calculating, but I want to show that calculating costs is good: if we can prove the cost, then we can prove the benefit of good behavior, and pay people the market rate.

The point is that we don't need charity, we need good auditing. With good auditing (did anyone say "land rent?"), good behavior is automatically rewarded. So there is no need for strange offers from wealthy men, and no need for westerners to wring their hands in despair. Everyone would behave well because it was in their interest to do so. In doing so they create more and more wealth for society, and everybody wins.