Not to forget that it also takes a whole Army of "STASI" type people to keep that system in check and extinguish the natural human urge to excel.
Berlin WallThis professor would have his tenure revoked at a politically correct university.
I’ve told this oldie but goodie story to some lefties and they STILL believe socialism will work especially with the right people in charge.
For all their talk on diversity of nature, the left insist that the ‘square peg’ human behavior can be neatly and peacefully be placed the ‘circle’ of socialism.
Under a socialist system, poorly achieving students would get 10 points added to their grade. (It would be taken from the hard-working achievers.) No achiever would be allowed to say that the slackers don’t deserve their extra points. The slackers would be allowed to accuse the achievers of anything that they can dream up, and the achievers would be automatically guilty.
The slackers would not know anything, so they would need special privileges when they look for a job, and the achievers would be passed over.
Wait - that’s how it works now!
Bookmark.
I did this same experiment back in 1967 with 6 students who thought socialism/communism would be the best system.
The outcome was the same, but with a twist. One of the students threatened to enlist his frat brothers to “help” the others to study harder for the final exam. They still failed.
Berlin WallThere is one good reason that Socialism will never work:
An Imperial Rescript
Now this is the tale of the Council the German Kaiser decreed,
To ease the strong of their burden, to help the weak in their need,
He sent a word to the peoples, who struggle, and pant, and sweat,
That the straw might be counted fairly and the tally of bricks be set.
The Lords of Their Hands assembled; from the East and the West they drew —
Baltimore, Lille, and Essen, Brummagem, Clyde, and Crewe.
And some were black from the furnace, and some were brown from the soil,
And some were blue from the dye-vat; but all were wearied of toil.
And the young King said: — “I have found it, the road to the rest ye seek:
The strong shall wait for the weary, the hale shall halt for the weak;
With the even tramp of an army where no man breaks from the line,
Ye shall march to peace and plenty in the bond of brotherhood — sign!”
The paper lay on the table, the strong heads bowed thereby,
And a wail went up from the peoples: — “Ay, sign — give rest, for we die!”
A hand was stretched to the goose-quill, a fist was cramped to scrawl,
When — the laugh of a blue-eyed maiden ran clear through the council-hall.
And each one heard Her laughing as each one saw Her plain —
Saidie, Mimi, or Olga, Gretchen, or Mary Jane.
And the Spirit of Man that is in Him to the light of the vision woke;
And the men drew back from the paper, as a Yankee delegate spoke: —
“There’s a girl in Jersey City who works on the telephone;
We’re going to hitch our horses and dig for a house of our own,
With gas and water connections, and steam-heat through to the top;
And, W. Hohenzollern, I guess I shall work till I drop.”
And an English delegate thundered: — “The weak an’ the lame be blowed!
I’ve a berth in the Sou’-West workshops, a home in the Wandsworth Road;
And till the ‘sociation has footed my buryin’ bill,
I work for the kids an’ the missus. Pull up? I be damned if I will!”
And over the German benches the bearded whisper ran: —
“Lager, der girls und der dollars, dey makes or dey breaks a man.
If Schmitt haf collared der dollars, he collars der girl deremit;
But if Schmitt bust in der pizness, we collars der girl from Schmitt.”
They passed one resolution: — “Your sub-committee believe
You can lighten the curse of Adam when you’ve lightened the curse of Eve.
But till we are built like angels, with hammer and chisel and pen,
We will work for ourself and a woman, for ever and ever, amen.”
Now this is the tale of the Council the German Kaiser held —
The day that they razored the Grindstone, the day that the Cat was belled,
The day of the Figs from Thistles, the day of the Twisted Sands,
The day that the laugh of a maiden made light of the Lords of Their Hands.
Rudyard Kipling
There are no questions regarding society or politics that cannot be answered by referring to the poetry of Rudyard Kipling...
One thing I find interesting is that academic socialists cannot be convinced that socialism is a failure, whereas the current Chinese leaders, who actually grew up in a country that practiced socialism/communism, are well aware that it is a failure. Although the Chinese leaders still give lip service to socialism, as it serves a useful purpose in maintaining totalitarian social order, they are actually quite happy to diverge from the economic tenets of socialism.
I’m a public school teacher. I had my class write an essay on whether or not they believed everyone had a right to health care. The class overwhelming believed their was a human right to health care.
I then took their next test grade and averaged it out. I also took points off of their tests and gave them to other classes. You know we got to redistribute those points. Of course, the grades were low.
We then talked about health care costs. How someone is paying for that “free” health care. The only way to pay for it is to redistribute wealth.
At this point I passed out their tests. I told them that since they were for socialized health care, they would certainly be for a socialized grading system.
Their was an uproar among the students. They finally saw inherent problem with socialism. Needless to say they all decided to stick with our merit based grading.
The really neat thing about all of this, beside the fact that it’s true, is that my principal was in the room doing my evaluation during this lesson. I’m pleased to say that my evaluation was the best I’ve ever had.
Ping.
I did this in my 8th grade History class...well, I introduced the idea and they threw a fit! They had enough common sense to know that wouldn’t work...even the lazy kids who made bad grades said that’s not right....
Oh well, in case there was any doubt....at least I know that by the end of the period, I was confident I would unleash 18 die hard Capitalists to the world....even if they were only 13 years old....