Why Socialism doesn't work
Americans have learned this lesson the hard way before in their history, starting with the Pilgrims. From Steve Finefrock:
An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before but had once failed an entire class.
That class had insisted that 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 socialism. All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A.
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.
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.
All failed, to their great surprise, 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.
Could not be any simpler than that.
Labels: socialism
posted by John Lott at 3:03 PM
3 Comments:
Urban legend: http://www.snopes.com/college/exam/socialism.asp
An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before and had recently passed yet another entire class. That class had agreed that FDR’s social security worked and that they could help each other all to be rich, a great equalizer.
The professor then said, “OK, we will have another experiment in this class on Obama’s (and every president since FDR’s) plan.” All grades would be calculated the same way but higher scoring students would receive less direct attention and would be required to help tutor those who scored poorly (substituting grades for dollars – something closer to home and more readily understood by all).
After the first test, the grades were passed out and the class average was a C. The students who got A’s were happy with their grades and the students who scored poorly were upset. As the second test rolled around, the students who scored best were asked to do more self-study as the professor spent an extra lesson reviewing material for the students who had scored poorly.
The second test average was a B! Everyone was happy. As the third test rolled around, the top performers were asked to help tutor their peers who were scoring poorly. The third test average was an A!
As the tests proceeded, the scores continued to increase as the students who had learned more quickly and had better previous professors were asked to help tutor those who learned more slowly and had been unlucky with their previous professors. As the top performers tutored their peers, they too benefited! The professor was able to proceed in his material as planned, for the preventative measures of the class kept the poor performers from holding the entire class back!
To their great delight, ALL PASSED and the professor told them that Social Security also succeeds as the government helps buoy a tide that lifts all ships. He explained that neglecting those who need assistance the most is detrimental and eventually hinders even the best performers. He was surprised that there might be some students selfish enough to neglect their peers when they had plenty of resources to help.
These are possibly the best 5 sentences you’ll ever read and all are applicable to this experiment:
1. You cannot neglect the poor into prosperity by pandering to the rich
2. What one person receives without working for may have a ripple effect (and at the least, is humane)
3. The government cannot aid people without proper resources
4. You cannot multiply wealth by hording it
5. When over half of the wealth is concentrated in the top 5% and that top 5% rejects unemployment benefits that create more economic value than tax cuts, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.
Please check out our blog at visceralpolitics@wordpress.com!
... The professor said "Let's try an experiment--- instead of giving you an individual grade, all your grades will be averaged."
The week before the first test, the professor caught one of the top students in the class sneaking into his office. He was outraged, and the student was suspended. But later the same week, the professor noticed that copies of his exams from previous years had disappeared from his file drawer.
The next week, he passed by the student dormitories, where through the windows, he was sure he saw three top students in his class wearing brass knuckles, one holding a baseball bat, supervising some sort of test. The other students in the room were all in his class, and they looked unhappy. They were poring over xeroxed papers. When he tried to enter, the students would not let him in the room.
The next week, the poorest performing students in his class showed up bruised and battered, one with a broken arm, and said that they were forced to drop the class, due to an unexpected death in the family.
The remaining students were all very bright, half the class was gone.
Toward the end of the semester, he noticed that whenever he asked a question in class, the students were all terrified to answer. He would call on one, and the student would think for a long time. Then give an answer. Usually it was correct, these were the better students, but on some rare occasions, it wasn't.
But the professor noticed that whenever a student gave a wrong answer, that student appeared bruised and battered, with a black eye, and said he was forced to drop the class due to family obligations.
By the end of the semester, there were only 8 students left out of 100, who easily aced the exam. Everyone got an A.
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