Socialism

[MattBMiller]

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...

 

[Ratickle]

Nice.....:sifone:

 

[MattBMiller]

Scary....:sifone:

 

[Perlmudder]

ain't that something!

 

[Magic Medicine]

simple economics there

 

[Sunsation96]

Great story Matt thanks for sharing

 

[LaughingCat]

Good anecdote.

May I explain why I don't think our current scenario amounts to emergence of permanent Socialism (at least not yet)

 

[LaughingCat]

If the government was seizing all profitable businesses to enrich themselves, I';d be afriad. Rightnow, the weak businesses are begging for money. trhere have been some glitches, like forcing good banks to take bail-out money. They were willing until the government added stipulations. Now those banks want to give it back. I expect teh government willaccept the money bank, refund the preferred shares and be done with it.

but the failing companies are begging for help. Bush, Paulson, et al formulated the TARP program, not liberals. If we consider the TARP and AIG bail-outs to be socialism, we MUST acknowldge that Bush, Paulson, et al are not and were not Conservatives. Otherwise we are being hypocrits.

The way I see it, the weak companies are like patients brought into the hospital. The doctors are workingto save their lives using any means necessary. And the rest of us are standing outside the ER arguing about the procedures they are using.

Government has made it clear they want private businesses to be the backbone of the stimulus and recovery program. So if they are not using government employees, but instead, hiring contractors to do the work, they are trying to get teh private business economy rolling again.

That is how I see it right now. I could be prove wrong. but the lessons learned from the GReat Depression: hand's off government, no FDIC coverage, so stimulus, raising taxes, balancing budgets: allowed the economy to collapse.

We are in bad times and have to push our ideological thoughts aside and fix the systemic problem. Then we can get back to our ideological ideals.

 

[BBB725]

If the government was seizing all profitable businesses to enrich themselves, I';d be afriad. Rightnow, the weak businesses are begging for money. trhere have been some glitches, like forcing good banks to take bail-out money. They were willing until the government added stipulations. Now those banks want to give it back. I expect teh government willaccept the money bank, refund the preferred shares and be done with it.

but the failing companies are begging for help. Bush, Paulson, et al formulated the TARP program, not liberals. If we consider the TARP and AIG bail-outs to be socialism, we MUST acknowldge that Bush, Paulson, et al are not and were not Conservatives. Otherwise we are being hypocrits.

The way I see it, the weak companies are like patients brought into the hospital. The doctors are workingto save their lives using any means necessary. And the rest of us are standing outside the ER arguing about the procedures they are using.

Government has made it clear they want private businesses to be the backbone of the stimulus and recovery program. So if they are not using government employees, but instead, hiring contractors to do the work, they are trying to get teh private business economy rolling again.

That is how I see it right now. I could be prove wrong. but the lessons learned from the GReat Depression: hand's off government, no FDIC coverage, so stimulus, raising taxes, balancing budgets: allowed the economy to collapse.

We are in bad times and have to push our ideological thoughts aside and fix the systemic problem. Then we can get back to our ideological ideals.

If this was true then why not let the private businesses and the people keep their money by not paying taxes for 3-6 months?

 

[LaughingCat]

Best I can think is that is just a temporary stimulus. In 3-6 months, they have to pay taxes. We got into this mess by doing things that really amounted to temporary stimulus, but not encouraging growth. So by the government spending money on projects to get a permanent result; like building a road, retro-fitting a building, etc, we get the future use from that item. Also, retro-fitting factories and bringing back manufacturing jobs creates future revenue for government. Simply giving a temporary tax break will like lead AMericans to put the money towards their current debts. In other words, it's an indirect payment to the banks.

 

[Ratickle]

Bush, Paulson, et al formulated the TARP program, not liberals. If we consider the TARP and AIG bail-outs to be socialism, we MUST acknowldge that Bush, Paulson, et al are not and were not Conservatives. Otherwise we are being hypocrits.

I have never called Bush a "fiscal" conservative. Instead, quite the opposite. HIs senior drug plan will probably force the Medicaid/Medicare programs into insolvency fairly quickly.

 

[LaughingCat]

whole-heartedly agree.

 

[BBB725]

Best I can think is that is just a temporary stimulus. In 3-6 months, they have to pay taxes. We got into this mess by doing things that really amounted to temporary stimulus, but not encouraging growth. So by the government spending money on projects to get a permanent result; like building a road, retro-fitting a building, etc, we get the future use from that item. Also, retro-fitting factories and bringing back manufacturing jobs creates future revenue for government. Simply giving a temporary tax break will like lead AMericans to put the money towards their current debts. In other words, it's an indirect payment to the banks.

But wouldn't it be better to let the people decide on how to spend their money, rather then have the government do it?

 

[LaughingCat]

Of course, but when everyone is begging the government for money, the government needs to have some revenues to keep going. If people would stop asking the government to provide thngs, like police, fire, streets, etc, we could stop paying taxes. I totally agree the government is too big, but everyone is asking them to fix expensive problems, so they are not going to give tax holidays.

Remember, this problem is systemic. It requires a repair of the system, then we can get back to our fiscally conservative ideological ways.

 

[Sea-Dated]

Great way to sum it up

 

[PARADOX]

Let me add a tid bit of info, here.
I grew up in a communist country, not socialism, but close.
Everyone who worked for the goverment and for the "couse" just worked enough not to get in trouble. Large goverment owned farms did pourly with the crop yield. Many small private farmers... the poor, with their back yard and small ranch time properties worked their but off and the yield per acre was several times as the gov. owned land. My Dad, (and many others) were tabbling in the black market and made twice as much in half the time as with the gov job. The gov. looked the other way with the black market and the private enterpice ventures, since that actualy kept the country going bankcrupt.

Years and decades later.. the communism failed, and private enterprise is going strong. WE have to be very carefull here and not allow our left wing, radical, liberal azzholes taking the country with a system that's doomed to failure. I can guarrantfreeking to you, that even in hard times "ANYONE" want's to work.. they will find a job. Anyone wants hand outs.!?/ well... I have a 357 mag hollow point with their name on it

 

[Tommy Gun]

If the government was seizing all profitable businesses to enrich themselves, I';d be afriad. Rightnow, the weak businesses are begging for money. trhere have been some glitches, like forcing good banks to take bail-out money. They were willing until the government added stipulations. Now those banks want to give it back. I expect teh government willaccept the money bank, refund the preferred shares and be done with it.

but the failing companies are begging for help. Bush, Paulson, et al formulated the TARP program, not liberals. If we consider the TARP and AIG bail-outs to be socialism, we MUST acknowldge that Bush, Paulson, et al are not and were not Conservatives. Otherwise we are being hypocrits.

The way I see it, the weak companies are like patients brought into the hospital. The doctors are workingto save their lives using any means necessary. And the rest of us are standing outside the ER arguing about the procedures they are using.

Government has made it clear they want private businesses to be the backbone of the stimulus and recovery program. So if they are not using government employees, but instead, hiring contractors to do the work, they are trying to get teh private business economy rolling again.

That is how I see it right now. I could be prove wrong. but the lessons learned from the GReat Depression: hand's off government, no FDIC coverage, so stimulus, raising taxes, balancing budgets: allowed the economy to collapse.

We are in bad times and have to push our ideological thoughts aside and fix the systemic problem. Then we can get back to our ideological ideals.

I don't disagree...I just wish the Treasury would take the TARP funds back...geeez how hard is that? I just read a story yesterday in Stl. about a banker of a solvent bank that was forced to take TARP funds quit because of the slary restrictions and is going to raise money and buy a non-TARP bank.

 

[LaughingCat]

I agree with you and I truly believe they will. It'll be simultaneous with much other good news. Think of the public phsyche when we emerge from this hysteria.

 

[2112]

If this was true then why not let the private businesses and the people keep their money by not paying taxes for 3-6 months?

Because all hell would break out when it was time to reinstate the taxes. Most people have no idea how much they are paying.

 

[catmando]

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...

Sounds like typical InternetS tomfoolery. I couldn't find it on Snopes so this must be your April Fools joke eh?