Thursday, June 4, 2009

Economics 101 (socialism in action)

Don't believe me when I say socialism doesn't work because it takes away incentive? Consider the following real-life example of economic theory put to work (this is one of those forwarded emails - I italicized certain lines):
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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 third 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.

8 comments:

  1. YOU NAILED IT!!!! Excellent post explaining in so few words the horrible situation we're in right now. I think they just had the first test and the 2nd one is coming up. Great blog, by the way. Love your title photo!! :D

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  2. This is so true, but getting the majority of the mainstream public to see and understand is such a challenge.

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  3. You I like!! Go, girl!
    Best regards,Granny Dilley

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  4. I like you. You GO girl!!
    Best regards, Granny Dilley

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  5. What a oversimplified "study" - has anyone of you ever LIVED in a socalist society? I'm guessing not.

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  6. No worries, Pete. We all will be living in a socialist society soon.

    Meanwhile, if you wish to expedite your personal experiences in socialism, there are any number of excellent selections from which you can choose. My Russian sister-in-law highly recommends her home country.

    - Patrice

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  7. This is perfect! I'm forwarding it to those in my family who need to hear it.

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