Socialism in simplified terms
An economics professor said 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.
But, 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, 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.
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.
But, 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, 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 Anonymous at 5:38 AM
7 Comments:
This didn't pass the smell test, so I looked it up on Snopes.
On it's way to be verified as an urban legend - looks like it originally floated in 1994:
Snopes Link
Yes, greed is a wonderful incentive. And unbridled, largely unregulated greed is what caused a 50% drop in my retirement accounts in the last 18 months. A small price to pay for doctrinal purity, huh, HB?
This is a simplified example of how socialism works and the problems it creates.
Socialism has never worked long-term anywhere for some of the very reasons illustrated in this post.
Sounds like with the drop in your retirement account, you are just sharing your wealth. Why not just put all your money in a joint pool and divide it evenly with your neighbors, family and the beggar downtown.
Re: "Socialism has never worked long-term anywhere"
I am sure that most of the countries in Western Europe which have economies far more "socially" inclined than ours will ever be would be surprised to hear that. Many of their citizens think we brutalize the "have-nots" in our country. And they don't seem to be doing any worse during this recession than we have.
And speaking of the serious recession we are in, the beneficiaries of the greed which caused it hardly included the "beggar downtown." Merrill-Lynch, for example, collapsed while millions of bonus dollars were being scooped up by the very excutives that failed to prevent the company's failure. The surprise isn't that the country isn't willing to look at more left-leaning strategies, the real surprise is that small investors and people who lost their jobs aren't in the street with pitchforks and torches.
What, B, you mean the good doctor borrowed?
II'm scandalized, and damned tired of the HB apologies.
Lenin, Stalin, Marx, Engels, Robert Owen and their views all worked out really well.
Capitalism is still the most successful strategy in every country
"Capitalism is still the most successful strategy in every country"
That is a pretty sweeping statement that I think you would have a hard time proving. Virtually all of Europe practices some degree of socialism and so does Japan. These are hardly failed backwaters of civilization. And how,exactly, has American capitalism protected us from a massive economic meltdown and the stampede of jobs to China and other low wage nations?
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