I received an email from an old friend the other day for the purpose of trying, once again, to convince me why the right is right. The scary part is that the story it told and the example it contained portrays quite accurately the way a large part of our population really do think and act.
It told of an economics professor at a local college who made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had once 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 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. 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.
When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F. 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. 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”, was the conclusion, with the request to “Please pass this on”, and the tag line… “If somebody is unable to understand THIS explanation, I have serious doubts about their ability to even function in society, much less run our country!”
Well, for once, I’ve done as requested by a chain mail sender and have passed it on, along with the response I sent back to my friend.
Yo…
Sorry to disappoint you, but here’s the problem with the professor’s example.
It assumes that everyone is only out for themselves, and not willing to work for the greater good. It assumes that nobody enjoys learning for its own sake, nor wants to do their best unless they are rewarded for it. It assumes that all people are lazy, self-centered, and non-altruistic. And while these may be the characteristics of many people on both ends of the economic scale, the very rich who do not want to share any of their bloated assets – e.g. AIG executives; and the very poor who want to get something for nothing – e.g. perennial welfare frauds; fortunately, there is a large segment of people in the middle – e.g. you and I (I am trying just as hard to convince him that left is right) who do our best because we respond to our own personal challenges, it is more fun that way, we are moved by the misfortunes of others, we recognize that the quality of a man’s life is not measured solely by his financial assets, and that by offering our best for its own sake we help create a better society for ourselves and our children.
And to quote your example from my perspective… “If somebody is unable to understand THIS explanation, I have serious doubts about their ability to even function in society, much less run our country!”
And then, because I’m a bit of a smart ass, I added the following:
ps. Another fallacy with the story is that it says it took place at “a local college”. A local college, possibly a Junior College or Community College would have been populated by middle class or lower middle class students who had to work to support themselves and understood the value of communal effort. Somebody would have posted a note on the bulletin board suggesting group study sessions so everyone could just study parts of the assignment, pool their resources, and beat the professor at his game. If this example actually did occur, it was probably Harvard Business School, Yale, or Wharton School of Business, some place populated by rich kids born into wealth who think they are worthy of the silver spoon that was in their mouth when they were born.
And just between you and me, dear reader… the students in the example clearly do not illustrate the behavior patterns of someone on The Road To Higher Consciousness.
peace…………..ag
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