Practical results of socialism, An allegorical story Options

[Paul's Here]

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 Obama's socialism worked & that no one would be poor & 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 would be averaged & everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail & no one would receive an A...

After the first test, the grades were averaged & everyone got a B.

The students who studied hard were upset & the students who studied little were happy.

As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less & 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 & no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

All failed, to their great surprise, & 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.

[Scotty Stevens]

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 Obama's socialism worked & that no one would be poor & 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 would be averaged & everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail & no one would receive an A...

After the first test, the grades were averaged & everyone got a B.

The students who studied hard were upset & the students who studied little were happy.

As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less & 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 & no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

All failed, to their great surprise, & 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.

I love this!

This is, maybe, the best analogy of socialism I've ever come across.

Do you possibly have a link to the original source of this story?

Good stuff. Thank you for sharing.

Scotty

[rtg24]

I think most of us come up with it at some point or other, I myself not so long ago...
http://forums.4aynrandfans.com/index.php?showtopic=10943

But it is an analogy that should be formalised because it can really hit home with people when they are young, open-minded and receptive by virtue of being close to their life (you can't really understand paying tax until, well, you pay tax).

[Scotty Stevens]

I think most of us come up with it at some point or other, I myself not so long ago...
http://forums.4aynrandfans.com/index.php?showtopic=10943

But it is an analogy that should be formalised because it can really hit home with people when they are young, open-minded and receptive by virtue of being close to their life (you can't really understand paying tax until, well, you pay tax).

Thank you for the link. Most helpful :-)

Scotty

[Paul's Here]

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Do you possibly have a link to the original source of this story?

Good stuff. Thank you for sharing.

Scotty

You're welcome. It was just a story circulated by email. Sorry, no link

[MikeMarotta]

This is an old story. SNOPES, the Urban Legends site tracks it back about 15 years to "Bible colleges."
However, I was probably in high school in the mid-1960s, when the analogy was first offered.
http://www.snopes.com/college/exam/socialism.asp

I tried a couple of framing phrases and drilled down 10, 20, 30+ pages, but eventually only came to one citation from 2006
http://www.thehighroad.us/showthread.php?t=416086
Everything else was 2009 and 2010. Apparently, this has exploded all over the Internet since the election of President Obama.

[Scotty Stevens]

This is an old story. SNOPES, the Urban Legends site tracks it back about 15 years to "Bible colleges."
However, I was probably in high school in the mid-1960s, when the analogy was first offered.
http://www.snopes.com/college/exam/socialism.asp

I tried a couple of framing phrases and drilled down 10, 20, 30+ pages, but eventually only came to one citation from 2006
http://www.thehighroad.us/showthread.php?t=416086
Everything else was 2009 and 2010. Apparently, this has exploded all over the Internet since the election of President Obama.

Oh well. If anything, it's not a bad analogy, and it be described as just that: an analogy. One could argue that grades are not the same as taxes, but grades are the result of work, as is income. The harder the work, the higher the grades and income. I think it works.

[Abaco]

That's very good Paul. Thanks.

I can't help but chuckle at the thought that America's in the "C" range at this time.