Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Free Market Capitalism vs. Socialism: A Simple Analogy


An economics professor at Texas Tech said 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. 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, and name calling all resulted in hard feelings as no one would study any longer for the benefit of anyone else. All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because under capitalism when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great; but when the government levels the playing field and takes more of reward away; no one will try or want to succeed as much as before.

Source: http://welkerswikinomics.com/blog/2009/04/26/free-market-capitalism-vs-socialism-a-simple-analogy/

4 comments:

  1. Nice one, just curious if you know who's that proff? as I am from Tech

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  2. I don't know who is that prof. I also do not know whether this is true story or not. But, I wish this to be true.

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  3. failing an entire class... there is going to be riot

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  4. It is no wonder the average American is brainwashed into thinking that Socialism is some kind of evil. This so-called "Scholar" clearly has no basic understanding of Socialism. He has leadimpressionable young minds into thinking that "Socialism" is an unjust system and Capitalism is a just one. Quite the opposite. You only have to look at the more stable and advanced countries of Europe and even your neighbour to the north to see that a "Socialist" economy is a more favourable and just system for everyone. With the insurance scandals, the mortgage collapse and near financial ruin of the US in recent months...I ask you, where has Capitalism gotten you?
    Cheers...oh I mean Geers!

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