Journal Timex's Journal: It's a joke... ...or is it? 11
Source: http://emmitsburg.net/humor/archives/political/political_15.htm
An economics professor at Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX...
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, everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. But, 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.
The scores never increased as bickering, blame, name calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for anyone else. All failed to their great surprise and the professor told them that socialism would ultimately fail because the harder to succeed the greater the reward but when a government takes all the reward away, no one will try or succeed.
-- the problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other peoples' money. Margaret Thatcher
I don't care if it is a joke (Score:2)
They nailed it right on the head- and this coming from somebody who originally liked Marx.
Pope Leo was right- the only way to get the rich to truly take care of the poor is to eliminate liberty and make it a *religious duty*.
I'm not so worried about stopping progress- progress has a way of happening anyway when everybody's needs are taken care of- I am worried about the motivation though. Without the incentive of luxury or the push of religion and tyranny, there is no reason to take care of anybody other t
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But yes, if you take away ALL incentive, you kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.
...and THIS is exactly why Socialism (especially the way it's been put into practice in Europe) is a Bad Idea(tm).
It might look good on paper, but when you throw in the Human Variable, all bets are off, unless you're betting on certain failure.
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Socialism (as practiced in Europe, and in Kanuckistan) doesn't take away all incentive. It provides a necessary safety net for people, so they can get back on their feet and participate in society.
Corporate socialism, or rather corporate welfare, as practiced in the US, Canada (eg: bailing out GM - just goes to show politicians don't look at the big picture no matter what country they're in), and elsewhere, first with the military-industrial complex that Eisenhower warned against, and now with the social
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Socialism (as practiced in Europe, and in Kanuckistan) doesn't take away all incentive. It provides a necessary safety net for people, so they can get back on their feet and participate in society.
From a certain perspective, this is true. If your work was in the medical field, you might have a different view of "socialized medicine". From what I understand of it, rates for procedures and medication are set by the government. If this is a reasonable summary of it, then where is the incentive for doctors to research new medications and new procedures? Does this line get blown-away by the revelation that the government is making additional payments to make up for the reduced cost to the consumer?
Corporate socialism, or rather corporate welfare, as practiced in the US, Canada (eg: bailing out GM - just goes to show politicians don't look at the big picture no matter what country they're in), and elsewhere, first with the military-industrial complex that Eisenhower warned against, and now with the socializing of risk and the privatization of profit IS killing the goose that laid the golden egg, by making it clear that there are two classes - the "I'm getting a bailout - OR ELSE!!!" and the "I'm not well-enough connected to get a bail-out".
I a
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There's always incentive for doctors and companies to do research and try out new procedures, even under single-payer systems. For example, new procedures that save time and money and improve patient outcomes will allow doctors to perform more procedures, resulting in higher overall billings. We've no shortage of medical research going on up here ...
Also, the median house price in Detroit is now 7,500 [usnews.com]. Pretty cheap. There are communities in California where house prices are half what they were in 1980
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Now is NOT the time to buy.
Having been out of work since December, I'm hardly in a position to try to. :\
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Wait... WHAT? Ok, no the US doesn't have a CASTE-system, and we don't have the strict aristocratic class system working... however, anyone who would claim that there is no benefit to a child for being born to rich parents as opposed to being born to poor parents is suffering from delusions.
When I got my first professional job, I told my parents that my asking salary was $80,000... they FREAKED, because they were like, "how could you possibly ask for that much money!?" They were even more surprised when I w
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Wait... WHAT? Ok, no the US doesn't have a CASTE-system, and we don't have the strict aristocratic class system working... however, anyone who would claim that there is no benefit to a child for being born to rich parents as opposed to being born to poor parents is suffering from delusions.
My hallucinations are my business, thanks. :)
When I say that the United States of America is not (nor has it ever been) and aristocratic society, I mean just that. People are not "lords" over others by right of birth to a certain family.
How families spend their money is another matter, and that is really a moot point.
In theory, any American citizen can be president. In practice, it's a different matter, largely due to the Law of Unforeseen Circumstances. As this country has gotten bigger, as methods of c
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Actually, my skill set was developed because my parents were able to allow me to just sit around all day long playing around with the computer.
My friends were not so fortunate. Their families did not make the same amount of money, and they had to work in their adolescence.
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Socialism is not communism.
The described joke showed communism, not socialism.
Socialism would be taking all the scores, putting them together in a pot, and using statistical models on it to ensure that grades were distributed fairly... namely that everyone got at least a 60 (a D, and thus not failing) and taking the minimal amount from the top graded in order to ensure that there is enough to do so, but ensuring as well to take enough from the middle, that the people who scored in the top still remain in th