Subject: Just a good example
"SOME IDEAS ARE SO STUPID ONLY INTELLECTUALS BELIEVE THEM."
George Orwell
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.
Is this man truly a genius? Checked out and this is true...it DID happen!
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.
...............
My comment:
Can you really believe that any university would really do that? Can you believe any group of students would all return a paper with an opinion opposite to that of their professor? Did Obama really say: 'no one will be rich and no one will be poor'?
In this society there is a such inequity because we do not value the work of people who clean hospital floors for $4 an hour but do value a director of Lehmann Brothers who gives himself a $30 million bonus for dreaming up yet another way to siphon off more wealth through dodgy accounting. Who is offering value for money? Do you really think the cleaning lady could ever become a director of Lehman Brothers because of the rewards that offers?
Perhaps if George Bush's tax break billionaires paid their fair share of tax, she might be paid enough to not need food stamps and maybe put her kids through university and surely a million or two for sitting around a board table is enough, and like her, only if he performs.
Nobody is suggesting everyone gets the same rewards, just that the extremes are pulled in a bit so more of the pie can be shared. That seems to me what Obama wants, but propaganda like the above with it dishonest and simplistic message is paid for by the very rich to influence voters and it works. I wonder how many cleaning ladies can pay a PR company to flood the internet with such crap!
How about we send this quote out to Republicans and Tea Party members?
H.L. Mencken said: "For every complex problem, there is an answer that is clear, simple--and wrong."
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Stafford, try "Truth or Fiction" or "Snopes Urban Legends Reference Page" to run down this kind of crap. I often do this and send the results to people who send me such garbage, but they never get around to acknowledging their error.
ReplyDeleteSnow, I had a trawl through 'Snopes" and it is an eye opener. It seems many of the 'urban legends' originate from wannabe politicians desperate for an issue. Perhaps we should check on any such claims before we vote!
ReplyDeleteSadly I know field loads of people who get fed this propaganda all the time and they believe it - over here it comes neatly packaged in the Daily Mail, middle Englands favourite read.
ReplyDeleteSnopes is great! Thanks for this Stafford - brilliantly argued. I hate the propoganda that gets emailed from 'friends' and even popped in your letterbox. This sort of stuff and racist stuff (one of the mums at school gave a racist slip of paper to everyone, telling how the muslims were going to take over the world - totally ignorant crap based on made up bodgy statistics, but people will believe that stuff).
ReplyDeleteAn excellent commentary, Stafford. Unfortunately, too many people would never read as far as your postscript. They fall victim to the simplistic argument every time - especially (dare I say it) in the USA, it seems. Part of the blame, surely, is that all the major free-to-air TV stations there are commercial. Except in a major crisis, where coverage can be phenomenal, most US news reports are so dismal, they're not worth watching. But don't get me started......
ReplyDeleteThe recent Qantas fiasco is a good example.
ReplyDelete'The rank and file can't have an increase in pay, but we on the board will have us a nice raise in our salaries.'
I know who I'd rather get more money - the people who keep the bloody planes in the air.
The same goes for teachers, nurses, cops etc. They are all underpaid.
At least here we don't have to rely on tips to make up wages.
It seems that is the limit of the comments, few but high on quality. Thanks everyone for your thoughts.
ReplyDeleteIt seems the economy is no longer designed by the people to serve the people. It is now designed by a few to serve themselves and most of us are expected to serve Their Economy!
There is so much paranoia and fear surrounding politics at the moment. The problems in society aren't caused by things like socialism, they're caused by corporate bodgyism (I just coined that phrase, do you like it?) and a focus on consumerism. There is a lot of inequity and I think people are sick of it. There is no argument in the world that can convince me that giving your banking CEO a 30 million dollar bonus and 6 months later having that same bank expect a government bailout, is right. But my objection to it doesn't alter the fact it is happening.
ReplyDeleteThe media and government put so much rhetoric out there regarding economies crashing and never recovering if big corporations aren't given assistance. And to a certain extent that is true but look at what's about to happen in Europe and the UK - CRASH BABY CRASH. Much worse than before. And the US isn't far behind.
I don't have the answers - if I did I'd be Queen Of The World - but it sure doesn't help when you watch the US Republican race and there is so much focus on being against abortion, Muslims and gay marriage. What about your economy and the fact it's about to tank? What about your homeless problem and the fact that a vast majority of your population can't afford to go to the doctor? But if you drill for oil in Alaska or even the Grand Canyon all will be well, right? Those Republicans are totally missing the point almost as much as Tony Abbott is.
Talk about frustrating. I can see why people run away to join the circus. Good grief!!!
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHi Selma! Join the circus? How could you explain current political shenanigans if politicians were not clowns and we were not trapped in a circus!? Good grief!!!
ReplyDeleteMost people seem to miss the point that it was the professor who decided to give all the students the same grade. He represents either the extreme liberal who calls for every one to have the same pay, or the ultra conservative who decided that he should be the only one who benefits.
ReplyDeletedfish, of course you are right, of course it is the latter. Here were recently flooded with $110m worth of advertising by big overseas owned miners who predicted huge job losses, loss of government revenue etc. etc. because our government wanted to tax their use of our non-renewable resources. No sooner had our government basically backed down, than Rio Tinto (70%) foreign owned posted a half year profit of 17 billion!
ReplyDeletePoor dears, of course we must continue to subsidise them so they can continue to rape our resources and expatriate more cash than many countries' total revenue.
This tactic worked everywhere governments attempted to impose a resource rent tax and it worked here. We are the losers in this global Monopoly game until we have the guts to call their bluff.
I just received the email and did the Snopes search before finding your response which I totally resonate with. I have a Red-Neck, Blue Collar, Racist Step-Father who regularly passes junk email of this kind and he thinks it is clever and profound.
ReplyDeleteI believe that some of the best measures of Internet fluff/myth is how big the font is, whether it is bolded and the last line is pushing one to share this morsel of intellectual excellence with the world (with a little red-neck, Republican ideology thrown in for good measure).
Cheers,
Tom