A Simple Analogy
An economics professor at Texas Tech 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....
Do you agree? If we feel entitled, are we actually giving away our power to others leading us to socialism? Or, is it better for those in charge to create an equal atmosphere where individuals all experience life the same...the same economic status, the same education, the same health, the same lifestyle?
Where do I sign up for a class like that. Yes I agree. Don't we all want to be rewarded for our actions? Inherit in the desire to tax the rich is the idea that maybe they did not get there too honestly, and probably at the expense of pushing the less fortunate down. Therefore taking money from them is payback. I suppose just as there are poor who will abuse the system there are rich who will do the same. You can never create a system of either taxes, penalties or socialism that will do away with that. But I think right now we have the next best thing - capitalism. Its not perfect but I don't end up with an F either.
ReplyDeleteOK, interesting example. Not a true experiment, though, because students had been biased before the professor's intervention by a lifetime of being rewarded for achievement.
ReplyDeleteThat said, there is some truth to the issue of rewards and productivity. When Germany reunited, the East was a mess. Years of Communist-style socialism had sapped the populace's interest in productivity and innovation. One problem is that there cannot be pure socialism or capitalism because those in power usually fix things to their personal benefit.
One of the major reasons that things appear to be moving in a socialist direction is that the current brand of capitalism had no checks and balances on it when it began to collapse. Those who think we can have capitalism without some restraints on it are just as naive as those students in the professor's class, IMO.
I have family that lives in London, Holland, Sweden, and Italy (that all fled Estonia during WWII or were born in those countries as their parents fled). England seems to be leaving socialism, Holland ans Sweden are both well entrenched, and my cousin in Italy left Sweden because she didn't feel she earned enough in Sweden as a doctor. Some say it works and others say it doesn't. Most agree that Communism in Russia at least bankrupt itself. I even have a cousin in Estonia that says she wants the "good old days" of communism back. Even China is opening its markets to capitalism and are thriving.
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