An economics professor at a local college made a statement that she had never failed a single student before, but had recently 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 this 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."
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's 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 the government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.

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.

Good post Trapper 7!!!

an excellent representation of socialism.

Wait . . . I thought the professor said no one would fail . . .?

That's what Bernie says......perhaps he is the professor.

yes and the professor was absolutely correct no One failed they All Failed.

Socialism destroys incentive and is one step away from communism.

That's the implementation to convince people to go with SOCIALISM!

Then the RULING class sets the rules.

Well said Trapper7.

If you seize/tax all the money of the wealthy to give free cheeseburgers to the poor for a year, what are the poor going to eat the following year.

Good post ,

As simple as that example is to comprehend , there will be millions and millions in this country who will not get it !

This just shows how ignorant people are. It is very frustrating to hear people speaking about socialism and don't even know what it is. Social Security is a socialistic program, so is Medicare, etc... one should have a tiny bit of understanding what is speaking/writing about before commenting. It is frustrating. I have asked if people what they think Socialism is and they say Communism. Well then I ask, what is Communism and they say Russia. lol If this is what you think you are misinformed or are having the wool pulled over your eyes. I hear that everybody shares everything even if you don't earn it, that not it at all! Many of the comments on here really show how misinformed some are.

I often hear: "have you read the Communist Manifesto?!" I respond "Yes." To which they respond: "well it is all in there." At which point I know they have not read the book. If one has read the book it essentially states that those with the "means of production" (giant factory owners, corporations) get rich off the work of the people that do the work creating a massive wage gap. Karl Marx, the author of the Communist Manifesto basic premise is that eventually people will get tired of being taken advantage of and demand things change.

Wealth is created on what is called "Surplus Value." For example, a factory worker gets paid $5 to make something, let us say he makes a table. The owner, who controls the "means of production" tools and the building, then turns around and sells it for $200. Let us say his overhead is $2.50. The Surplus Value is $192.50 the owner pockets. Marx argues that the worker should get a fair share of the wealth the worker produced. He also argues that this failing economic system will eventually lead to an economic crisis where there are only rich and poor people and there will eventually be a revolt. This is overly simplistic, but

I'm still waiting for the rest of the story!

I would be particularly interested in knowing if it would be acceptable if since the owner is selling his table for $200. What if another is making tables he can sell for $175. would that not lead to an economic crisis for the one selling for $200? So what would be his remedy?

All men are created equal is about being treated equally under the law.

How can a person with an IQ of 70 be expected to have the ability to CEO a fortune 500 company? He can earn a decent living though riding on the back of a garbage truck. A very important job in the world we live in. Plenty of other jobs he can do too that need doing.

That guy on the back of the truck deserves to be treated as equally under the law as the CEO. He will never make as much money though under any system of government. Lets face it he wont get treated the same in prison or in court either. Under any system. Our system does make an effort to minimize that. What other form of government can say that?

I will never support taking money people have earned through honest effort and labor, by force, and giving it to the irresponsible, or the lazy.

I have been in thousands of business's all over the U.S. driving trucks. Hauling goods from one destination to another. I can spot a Union dock within minutes of arriving. Takes 4-5 times longer to get anything done. Nobody gets fired and the laziest guy there gets paid the same as the hardest worker. It doesn't take long before nobody works any harder than the laziest guy.

Where in the world do you get that someone is taking something from you? Karl Marx in the Communist Manifesto stated: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs." No one is the same, no one believes that one should work and the other guy should sit on his butt and get rewarded the same. That's just crazy. A person that works hard deserves to be rewarded for that. This is where people are misled about by being told people want things for free and they will take your hard-worked for money and give it to someone else. This is just a stupid misrepresentation. Everyone's ability is different but every human being should be treated with dignity. That does not mean if you are a lazy bum you are entitled to the penthouse suite.

The only way to give somebody something they have not earned is to take it from someone who has.

The only way to have Karl Marx's vision of utopia is under a totalitarian government. A system where you do not own what you create. Where what you create is distributed to others who have not created.

Like it or not greed makes the world go round.

What makes Homo sapiens successful as a species is that though we are generally altruistic, we are also at our cores self interested. Communism and Socialism will never be successful because they fail to understand basic human nature. Communists and Socialists, except for most of the leadership, have a strong mental disconnect with reality.

If humans were only altruistic, they would have died off long ago.

Keith

Yeah well, I think that because maybe someone is born disabled I think he/she should have opportunities to live a full life. I may make more than them, or have different abilities than they do but because I can or do does not mean I hold it against them. I guess some people are more greedy than others, but hey I respect your opinion. I just think there is more to life than money.

"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."

Its pretty much like that in my area now and has been for years.

I think people should take the time to understand what is being talked about. The Communist Manifesto is essentially just a pamphlet, it does not take long to read. I was surprised when I read it many years ago when I was in college. I thought this controversial reading would be some big old tome but it is just a little booklet.