Culture

I don’t go very political on this website, but I can’t resist posting this interesting recount of a college experiment in socialism. H/T John Lott.

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.

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 socialism. 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.

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 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.

I’ll drink to that!

I saw a cleverly-worded post on one of the blogs I read the other day. This deals with our state’s current financial woes. Personally, I think the writer is on to something the state really needs to consider before closing state parks and laying off fire and police services.

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger:

When I read that you plan to shut police and fire stations and release tens of thousands of criminals onto the streets to balance the state’s budget, I realized that you may be out of touch with how middle class folks manage when their expenses exceed their income. To mitigate the effects of this recession which has hit my family hard, we have reduced or eliminated all non-essential items from our budget – even worthy items. Eliminating non-essential items like cable TV and prime rib has allowed us to have money for essential items like electricity (for broadcast TV) and chicken.

Now, to save the state the cost of a budget expert, I have made a list of all non-essential state offices, departments, commissions and boards whose budgets can be reduced or entirely eliminated without harming essential state services like police, fire fighters, and prison guards. There’s no need to pay me yet for this work, since I am sending you a list of only the 106 departments from the letters “A” through “I”. When I complete my work, you can pay me. But in the meantime, you can terminate these non-essential offices, departments, commissions, and boards.

The list is below.

State Departments, Commissions, and Departments That Can Be Closed Before Fire and Police Departments Letters A through I (because they’re useless, trendy, or duplicate federal services).

Access for Infants and Mothers
Acupuncture Board
African American Museum
California Commission on Aging
Department of Aging
Agriculture and Environmental Stewardship, Office of
Agriculture, Department of Food and
AIDS, Office of
Alcoholism and Drug Programs, Department of
Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority
Analytical Chemistry, Center for
Apprenticeship Council
Apprenticeship Standards, Division of
Arbitration Certification Program
Arts Council
Asian Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus
Assembly Democratic Caucus
Assembly Republican Caucus
Athletic Commission Continue reading…