An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class. That class had insisted that Obama’s socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer. The professor then said, “OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama’s plan”. All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A… (substituting grades for dollars - something closer to home and more readily understood by all). After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little. The second test average was a D! No one was happy. When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F. As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else. To their great surprise, ALL FAILED and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed. It could not be any simpler than that. Remember, there IS a test coming up. The 2012 elections. These are possibly the 5 best sentences you’ll ever read and all applicable to this experiment: 1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. 2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. 3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. 4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it! 5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.
I know this is the case. I am exactly the type of parasite that clings onto the hard work of other people and benefits from it without contributing anything myself. That’s because I am the boss.
makes sense…
This is why communism failed. There’s no incentive to work hard if the guy next to you can do nothing and get the same food and living as you do.
I’m not trying to take sides, but any concept will fail when taken to extremes. Complete wealth redistribution is obviously not optimal. However, having no wealth redistribution is also not optimal. There’s no such thing as a tax free modern society.
have you seen babes that live in communist countries? they dress like crap…how can you be hot and classy but poor?
Completely agree with ohai. The logic that says “See, this fails when taken to extremes” does not mean “this fails when applied in moderation.” Have some absinthe as you ponder that.
^Agreed. I’m not a Ron Paul libertarian, but I’m far from a liberal socialist. We need to reward innovation, not penalize it. If someone get’s rich for creating something like Microsoft, the iPhone, and a variety of Pharma drugs; they deserve it. The US needs to continue to welcome that kind of positive reinforcement. Not tilt too far to a equal society.
“classy” <=/=> “nice clothes”
“You can get the girl out of the cheap underwear, but you can’t get the cheap underwear out of the girl.” - from “Taxi Driver Wisdom” (apologies to those who object to the non-PC topic)
The kind of girls I date don’t wear panties.
not too many hot classy babes in rags from what I seen…
This isn’t a true story, it’s an email forward someone wrote. Never actually occurred, so the outcome isn’t experimentally proven.
Still a good read. Got to dumb it down for the folks that actually believe socialist policies add value. Now, how about a nice story on the perils of Keynesianism?
I rather talk about hot classy babes…funny thing is, I tried to write a new theory on the economics of sexual selection (undergrad, grad) twice and failed both times…I think I got it down now…if this investments thing don’t work out, i can be a pimp!!!
Frank when you run your fund, you can write these things in your annual reports.
So, I guess the NFL, with its revenue sharing, salary caps, and draft picks in reverse order of finish, must be a complete failure, right?
i know keynes has become politically charged, but how controversial is counter-cyclical fiscal policy?
Most bankers think it’s great when it’s used to bail out bankers. It’s just bad when it’s used for unemployment insurance and food stamps.
i think the main objection to redistribution is the utter inefficiency and abuse of the government mechanism as the middle man. I say let private charities/foundations handle it. Here is one of a million examples how a “helping hand” by the government goes awry: http://bostonherald.com/news/opinion/op_ed/view/20220201relief_systems_wired_for_abuse/