Some thoughts about Socialism

Now I'm not much into arguing, or most of the time even talking about politics, but this made to much sense to not post and see what others felt about it...

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently 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 will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A.... (substituting grades for dollars - something closer to home and more readily understood by all).
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. As the tests proceeded, 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. To their great surprise, ALL FAILED 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. It could not be any simpler than that.
Remember, there IS a test coming up. The 2012 elections.

These are possibly the 5 best sentences you'll ever read and all applicable to this experiment:
1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.
2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.
3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.
4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!
5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.

One of the the most TO THE POINT posts I have seen on this site- cudos Demo!!!!!

The 5 sentences should be taught to all students from high school through grad school.

It is surprising that it was actually a professor at a college teaching these young, simple minds this lesson. Must not be here in the US where the majority of teachers are flaming Socialists.

Great post Demo...I couldn't agree more!

Amazing point!

Myself, I've not got much, but what I've got I've worked my arse off for.

Well said,not into the political scene much either,but the system is definitely corrupt(greed) and the working class is shouldering more and more of the load!

good find, demo. keeps the analagy short and simple.

Az

Excellent point Demo. My family came from a communist/socialist country (Cuba). The problem with socialism is that no matter how hard you work, you'll never do better than the guy who's hardly working at all. When there's no reward, why do the work? America's capitalist system has flaws but at least you get a fighting chance for success.

5 stars..

lol what a pointless argument ! you "guys" have the so called best country in the worl land of the free blah blah & calling obama a socalist is a joke he inherited the mess from bush & chaney & his cronies ................iraq war 1 trillion dollars & counting ............bailing out cheneys wall street cronies ?? blaming obama is just plain stupid but hey you guys rated "palin" who banned books from her towns libary for so called "homosexual" content?? & openly encouraged students to burn said books ??? thats how hitler started lmfao

Adrian Rogers,1981. That was the guy!

He was a pastor !

Barack should grow a mustache.

Bull shit. Socialism is the only democratic economic system in the world. Capitalism doesn't reward work and it cannot exist without a strong nanny state. Capitalists make money by exploiting the working class and then use that money to buy the state which then serves the interests of the rich. Then they get bail-outs, corporate subsidies, tax loopholes, public investment in technology development which is then privatized (which is what the military budget is mostly about), and an imperialist foreign policy that favors corporate interests. Unlike businesses, which are completely tyrannically and undemocratic, the state is potentially democratic, so if the working class is organized they can push through worker-protection, environmental protection, labor and safety protection, minimum wage laws, civil rights laws, and programs that aid them like social security and medicare. Capitalists (especially Republican since they are mostly funded by *labor-intensive* capitalists as opposed to the capital-intensive capitalists who control the Democrats) organize to destroy these victories. Obama is president but he was overwhelmingly supported by Wall Street. Wall Street preferred him to Clinton or McCain. The idea that he is a socialist demonstrates a massive degree of stupidity.

Revolutionary socialists believe in worker control of the means of production. You get rid of corporations and replace them with workers councils then you get a truly democratic society that works in the interests of the people instead of one which operates solely in the interest of the %1.

I would like to chime in a bit on this one. There are inherent issues with all economic systems, and by no means am I an expert, but the idea of socialism within the U.S. began with Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal during the Great Depression. Unemployment, welfare, social security, and medicare to name a few of his programs. These programs are fundamentally sound in my opinion, but corruption has caused these programs to be a drain on the government and it's people, rich and poor. For example, the plan was made in the early 1980's to take the social security money that all legally working Americans pay, from the general fund to individualized savings accounts so that each American would have their own retirement fund that could be contributed to additionally as well as the minimum set forth by the government, this money could have been used for other things as well such as down payment for home ownership, and extra income if you happened to be unemployed. Instead Reagan used the surplus at the time to give tax breaks and incentives to the top 1% income bracket, with the idea that the money would "Trickle Down", but this obviously didn't happen.

Each American President has had a hand in the economic state of the American nation, it is truly short sided to lay the blame on any one president for the economic status in the USA, I could list positive and negative aspects of the economic policies of every president, but that would take up a lot of space and time and dilute the message.

I don't know what the answer is for the US economy, is it a flat tax, is it ending all socialist programs, is it better education, is it the recreation of a national bank, is it down-sizing the military, is it withdrawing from the UN so that Americans don't have to pay for all of the military excursions, is it embargos on imported goods, is it revamping the educational system, is it removal of the Electoral College making the US a democratic nation as opposed to a republic, or is a combination of all or these or something down a completely different path? Whatever the answer is; it will take longer than 4 years to sort out.

On a personal note I will not be voting for president, and in fact have never voted for president, because my vote does not matter. The president is chosen by the electoral college not by popular vote. My state will cast it's vote for the republican candidate, as it has done since 1964. Regardless of the popular vote. That's just the way it is.

tyrannus..."get rid of corporations and replace them with worker councils..."

my hippie friends of the '60's said this stuff.

the "workers of the world" party said this back in the '30's

you don't just "take" corporations from their legal owners, you buy them. corporations are owned by people like you and me...investing our hard earned money. if your workers council has the capital & wants to buy out google or whatever corporation, they can go for it. but then your worker councils are the capitalists.

the solution you propose has been around a long time. Cuba would be a good national model. and where are they? it's just not viable in this world.

sorry, man.

Az

These simple truths, multiple failed 'experiments' (at the cost of at least 70 MILLION lives), logic, historical knowledge and experience STILL isn't enough for most Europeans to get why socialism CAN'T work. And we have loads and loads of cynical politicians, who still use that naive socialistic bullshit to stay in power at society's great expense. I feel sorry that America chose to experiment with socialism, and I hope you'll leave that path . It can only lead to a spiral of debt, diminishing GDP, unemployment etc.

Absolutely correct that you can't blame 1 president,that's for certain. And I'm sure glad I'm here in a free society vs the other options.

One undeniable fact: Homo-Sapiens are, by nature, a lazy beast. If we can get something for nothing, then we will do nothing to get something. This was demonstrated by hippies in the 60's that tried to live in communes. These quickly fell apart because some were willing to work while most preferred to lay around, smoke pot, eat, and defecate.

Quote:

Originally posted by scubasteve5181

Absolutely correct that you can't blame 1 president,that's for certain. And I'm sure glad I'm here in a free society vs the other options.

It is by all means still a free society, but also much less free than it used to be. I'm completely incapable of comprehending why would anyone opt for an idea 'political correctness' It is an absurd situation in which person A wanting to say something to person B must ask person C for permission. You should flush that down the toilet.