The Lessons of Socialism Are Learned The Hard Way

good analogy, why work hard when you can coast

Interesting story and example of the failures of socialism.  I assume that you included this post as a comparison to the current political environment in the United States.  This example doesn' work, because income averaging isn't what is happening. 

Of course, to many readers cliches and bumper sticker phrases are the extent of their thinking, and the false choices you present here will be appealing.  Where was all this indignation when the banking laws were being repealed in 1988, 1997, and 2003?

That is an excellent story. I wonder if it was true.

What would you call the US Postal Service? Social Security? Medicare? Socialism in totality may not be the answer, but small doses of Socialism have been in many parts of our government and work well.

Wow.  

At least one of the thousands of people who blogged this on their personal blog (not part of a business/  social network where points are awarded for original content... ) was honest enough to say it was something they'd found in their mailbox.

Hope it's OK if I add a couple of links here.   Feel free to delete the whole comment.  I'll probably post it as a post at some point... the blogger who was honest enough not to pass off something hundreds have already seen in their mailbox

An Urban Legend but Illustrative Nonetheless on a blog called Attack Machine wrote "This urban legend came in an email. It still makes a good point."

The words urban legend in his post is a link to... the Urban Legend on Snopes.com

http://www.snopes.com/college/exam/socialism.asp

and his blog post went on for a few paragraphs to give his personal experiences. 

You must have forgot to click the button for "It's not my content but I have permission to publish it." Or something like that since ActiveRain is for original content.  

Your first paragraph:

Results 1 - 10 of about 615 for "An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had once failed an entire class". (0.32 seconds)

Results 1 - 10 of about 12,800 for "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.". (0.43 seconds)

Results 1 - 10 of about 762 for "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.". (0.35 seconds)

Results 1 - 10 of about 2,010 for "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.". (0.39 seconds)

Results 1 - 10 of about 2,810 for "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.". (0.33 seconds)

Your last paragraph:

Results 1 - 10 of about 777 for "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.". (0.33 seconds)

Nothing original there except your contact info

It always makes me wonder when I see an urban legend posted on ActiveRain how many of the rest of the posts on a members posts are just recyled urban legends.  I was able to flag about 99% of one members February posts when I had insomnia over the weekend.

Ooops.  Busted.

Robert, there are valid criticisms that can be made of most political points of view. No side can claim a monopoly on good or "right" ideas. (Even though some claim their ideas come from God)

Further, we live under a Constitution that guarantees our Right to express those views. I will defend your Right to express those views, no matter how divergent they might be from my own.

But make your points honestly.  Don't parrot others thoughts. And don't plagerize. Maureen points out that we click a button before we post, confirming the content is our own, or that we have permission to use other's content.  To ignore that button is to be dishonest, isn't it?

I'm sure you object to socialism as much as I do, but I don't use the term as the "flavor of the month" to argue against policies with which I disagree, or to attack a political party with which I am not affiliated. Your anger at current policies probably reflects your political preferences, and not a studied examination of the policies themselves. That, too is your Right.

I'm sure you'll refrain from cut and paste in the future.  Be well and good luck to you.

Is there a difference between 'price averaging' and 'distribution of wealth'? It's definitely something when the top fifty percent of Americans pay 100% of the federal income taxes.

I know people who refuse to get jobs because they wouldn't qualify for their government free-ride.

And for those who support taxes in the name of social-morality and social justice, please explain how stealing money from your fellow countryfolks at the poll box is moral.

Of course there's a difference, but hey P.T. Barnum once said "You can fool some of the people some of the time" ......so go for it!

Why do you think the top 50% of Americans pay 100% of the taxes?  Could it be because the top 20% hold 84.7% of the wealth, or that the top 40% hold 96% of the wealth in America.  Meaning that the bottom 60% of Americans hold 4% of the wealth (source: "Recent Trends in Household Wealth in the United States: Rising Debt and Middle Class Squeeze")

Actually I like your statistic better.  It's easier to put on a bumper sticker, even if it is misleading.

It may bear repeating...  

Why not repeat it with a link?  it's not like there aren't hundreds of instances of it on the internet.  Your  forum would be able to read it and you would not be taking 200 points for stating that you were repeating a story you read elsewhere and your contact info by cutting and pasting in words, 

There are hundreds of ways you could use a link and write content that is your OWN discussing what is in the link,

OR This is exactly what the box to check that you are NOT due points is for. I assumed when I saw you update that, that is what you did.

ActiveRain is for original content.  They do not give content that is cut and pasted in points.  Jokes, recipes, quotes,  It's in the guidelines.

As a "born again" Centrist, I tend to look at certain things from other than the fringes.  One thing we already have that is socialized is our education system.  I also think that recent railings about changing the way we deliver health care have been somewhat hystrionic.   When you stop to think about it we almost already have socialized health care.  An emergency room cannot turn down a patient if they do not have health care.  What we currently have is a system that delivers in its most inefficent method, and is costly to the few, to pay for the many.  I would like to see that change in someway!  I would begin with removing the EXEMPTION to the anti-trust laws, that health insurers enjoy.

Deborah in #4.  So your examples of socialism working well are the post office, social security and medicare? That's hilarious.  I had to visit the post office the other day and it made me swear again never to step inside one again.  Social Security and Medicare are bankrupt.  So if that's the direction we are going towards, let me get off the train before it crashes.

Michael in #8.  The distribution of wealth has two big causes.  The one that this post kind of alludes to is that it is just natural to have some people be more talented than others and thus end up earning more money.  If you interfere with that natural situation, you'll do more damage than good. The more sinister and totally invisible process of redistributing wealth is inflation.  Most people don't think inflation is a big deal but over time it redistributes wealth to the companies and people who get access to the new money supply first.  When the Federal Reserve prints money for unfunded government spending much of it first goes to the military/industrial complex.  They get to use the money first before the resulting increase in prices happens.  Slowly but surely this enriches those special organizations and nobody has the slightest clue.

Robert, I love this example but I have seen it many times.  Thanks for sharing but you really shouldn't get points for it.  You need to click that little box that comes up that let's you confirm that it is not your original work.