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Economic Basics

January 5, 2012

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. That 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 – 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. Remember, there IS a test coming up. The 2012 elections.

These are possibly the 5 best sentences you’ll ever read and all applicable to this experiment:

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.

2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.

3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!

5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.

By: Ed Will (copied from Facebook)

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4 Comments leave one →
  1. January 6, 2012 6:54 pm

    Thanks for “liking” my posts on The Rule of Threes and The Bug-out Bag, Foundation of Preparedness? over at Plan | Prepare (http://planprepare.wordpress.com/). If you liked those posts, you might also like my serialized survival fiction blog, The Union Creek Journal (www.unioncreekjournal.com).

    Thanks for stopping by.

    Toby

  2. rodger permalink
    January 16, 2012 4:33 pm

    1. You cannot negotiate the owner into prosperity without negotiating the worker out of prosperity.

    2. What an owner receives without working for, a worker must work for without receiving.

    3. The government cannot secure for anybody anything that the government does not first take from everybody else.

    4. You cannot multiply productivity by hording the means!

    5. When the owners get the idea that they do not have to work because the worker is going to take care of them, and when the worker gets the idea that it does no good to work because the owner is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.

  3. rodger permalink
    January 16, 2012 4:42 pm

    I think you should reconsider who is “entitled.”
    There is a difference between cooperation and removal of incentives. Imagine if all those students could work together on the test, dividing the work evenly. Specialization increases productivity, and cooperation in many cases increases motivation. A common exception is people who are beaten or neglected as children and have social disorders.

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  1. An economic experiment on socialism « Reformed Musings

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