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.
The 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 was 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.
The moral to the story: (In case you don’t get it yet.)
- You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.
- What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.
- The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.
- You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!
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This story is not original with me, although no definitive source has yet been found.
to The Feminine Intellect, your connection between the Bible and the real world. 
This is so true….and you know when the Separatists came over from England via Holland/England…they wer e somewhat of a Socialist society…all ‘working’ together and all getting the same. Well, in the early days…of course, many did not work as hard as they should because they knew others would be there to pick up the pieces and grow the crops….so…many got tired of working for those who did not and they quit…almost everyone starved. Then, when it was decided each would eat what they grew….well, things changed a bit. Imagine…a society where people are responsible for themselves…… And…the ‘socialist’ agenda….is not really what’s going on. The poor are still getting poorer…the rich, are getting richer…I recently read a book that challenged me to consider the possibility of a new aristocracy….food for thought!
Interesting how the cliche is true…..history does repeat itself.
I would love to know the title of the book you just read. Always looking for more to put on my reading list.
The Freedom Shift is the one I was referencing…and I”ll begin reading the Coming Aristocracy this month…
I love this story. Bravo.
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This is a perfect example of human misery, and if it applied fully we would all be dead by now. It obviously shows how people would rather take side with the lazy then oppose them, even when left with multiple choices to do so..establishment, or something else? Luckily, in real life things work a bit different…but anyways-hurra for ignorance spreading!!
A thought: Try applying this experiment to a Japanese classroom. I can see the heavy-learning students learning even harder. Can’t you?
Haha – That would be a sight.
It would, wouldn’t it…Don’t you think that this example applies only to the western world? And shows the poor state of it? I had to think about it for a while, but somehow immediately saw that there is something wrong with the way things were put up in the classroom..
The example is just too skinny to be valid.
Even if the history shows things didn’t work out the way they should, with that kind of arrangement- no system functions in its extremes, and that’s exactly where we have taken the one we have today.
As for that aristocracy mentioned by Rebecca- I think it never left, it just took a disguise, until the heat goes off..talk about extremes, though..huh..is there really a point discussing it taking its original establishment? Today? I don’t think so..
I don’t think this example applies exclusively to the Western world at all. Communism and Socialism have been attempted in many countries, and some still adopt the system. These beliefs have the same principles no matter where they are practiced.
Of course they do. And that’s why Communism and Socialism are possible. What I wanted to point out is that this example is taken from a perspective too narrow to carry any weight. In Communism, not everyone has the same income, nor does everyone have to go to the same doctor, drive the same car etc. In Communism gone wrong, that may be the case, but then we are talking about dictatorship, which has nothing to do with the original idea(actually, in case of dictatorship this little classroom experiment would hold some water). But, then, in dictatorship, people simply don’t have anything, anymore, and become slaves.This applies also to each establishment, when taken to extremes in favor of ruling class, i.e. Capitalism today..
It is not, though, the principles that I am questioning here, but the way people react to them. We are told, today, that Communism is enemy. And everything is wrong about it. And we should reject every principle of it. It’s BAD. That’s why the reaction to the experiment was the way it was, if it ever happened. Apart from it being too narrow, it also doesn’t give any way out, because of Capitalism gone bad. The rest of the world, actually, does apply a lot of the elements of solidarity, while the Westerners are getting themselves towards complete alienation…Didn’t you agree that the Japanese kids would pick it up, and drive through the whole thing without thinking twice about it? Solidarity IS the key, and has to exist, of course not to the full extent-nobody would expect to have their president, for example, deliver meals on wheels to make an extra buck, but it isn’t difficult to draw the line, of course. I wouldn’t mind if mine took a bus to work, and his kids went to a public school(but then, these kind of things probably never existed in Communism, I don’t think it was ever that human, maybe in some North European Socialism we would hear something like this). A lot of other elements are repressed today, and accused of being Communist, while they should be the essential part of any system..
I agree that this scenario was manufactured to make a philosophical point, and it does not actually reflect reality. Reality is far more moderate and there is a need for both the ability for one’s work to be rewarded, but we also need social safety nets. If we truly could get ahead in U.S. society by working hard, then we wouldn’t have so many poor or underemployed people. Many poor people work very, very hard, often exploited by those who are wealthy. The hard work of the poor enriches the wealthy (who really profits the most at fast food chain restaurant…the worker paid minimum wage and must work several jobs so has no time or extra income for college, or the CEO whose family paid for his college and whose family connections helped him get his high-paid job with great benefits. Because our system is inherently unfair, we need to help each other in a community, but that doesn’t mean that all incomes must be the same. It just means we need moderation and empathy. We need to recognize that there are some benefits that some people enjoy that they did not work for themselves (e.g., being born into a wealthy family) and there are many people that do not enjoy the benefits of lots of hard work (i.e., the working poor, and many middle class folk who are scraping to get by in this economy).