Craig_J
17th May 2013, 20:57
Hello all, I'm sure you've all heard this analogy of communism from capitalists:
An economics professor at Texas Tech said he had never failed a single student before but had, once, failed an entire class. The 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, 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.
Well on a Tottenham Hotspur FC forum an arugment about Communism started (don't ask how!) and this analogy was used by someone. But a member of the 'Glory Glory' forum came up with an analogy of capitalism along similar lines which I think needs credit as it's a brilliant way to argue against those who use it.
A professor teaching a two-term course hires a large lecture hall. He randomly selects four or five students and puts them at the front of the class. He then sits everyone else increasing distances away from him, with the vast majority of the class seated at the very end of the hall. He forbids people to move from their seats.
He then whispers the answers to the first test in a voice just loud enough for the front few students to hear, before handing everyone the test and walking away.
He comes back and finds, somewhat inevitably, that the randomly selected ones in the front who heard what he said did much better than the ones at the back. He then laughs and fails everyone sitting behind the first few students, explaining that if only they worked harder to hear what he had to say they'd have done better.
He then hands the answers for the rest of the term's exams to the front row of students, explaining that they were 'strivers' and 'knowledge seekers', and thus deserved to be rewarded for their efforts, while castigating the ones further back as 'shirkers' and lazy, idle failures too uninterested to dig themselves out of the academic hole they are in. Finally, he implements an examination system that gives the people in the front (excluding the randomly selected 'strivers', who already have the exam answers) easy exams, the people behind them moderately tough exams, and the ones at the very back (Again, the majority) brutally hard exams.
He then lectures for the rest of the term in a whisper just loud enough to be heard by the front few rows.
At the end of the term, he checks the grades of everyone in class after they've gone through his implemented exam system. The ones with high grades are allowed to move to the front for the second term, and the ones with low grades are moved further back. He finds that most of the people with high grades are the people who were in front anyway, and most of the people in the back were the people who were in the back all along. He then explains that capitalism works by concentrating all the wealth and power in the hands of a very small segment of the population while forcing the vast majority of people to work long, hard hours for relatively tiny amounts of money and with little to no prospect of ever moving up because of the manifold inherent disadvantages stacked against them. Those that are in front, stay in front, and those at the back, stay in the back producing profits for the front.
link to the thread here:
http://www.glory-glory.co.uk/showthread.php?4303-Will-Communism-Ever-Work/page2
An economics professor at Texas Tech said he had never failed a single student before but had, once, failed an entire class. The 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, 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.
Well on a Tottenham Hotspur FC forum an arugment about Communism started (don't ask how!) and this analogy was used by someone. But a member of the 'Glory Glory' forum came up with an analogy of capitalism along similar lines which I think needs credit as it's a brilliant way to argue against those who use it.
A professor teaching a two-term course hires a large lecture hall. He randomly selects four or five students and puts them at the front of the class. He then sits everyone else increasing distances away from him, with the vast majority of the class seated at the very end of the hall. He forbids people to move from their seats.
He then whispers the answers to the first test in a voice just loud enough for the front few students to hear, before handing everyone the test and walking away.
He comes back and finds, somewhat inevitably, that the randomly selected ones in the front who heard what he said did much better than the ones at the back. He then laughs and fails everyone sitting behind the first few students, explaining that if only they worked harder to hear what he had to say they'd have done better.
He then hands the answers for the rest of the term's exams to the front row of students, explaining that they were 'strivers' and 'knowledge seekers', and thus deserved to be rewarded for their efforts, while castigating the ones further back as 'shirkers' and lazy, idle failures too uninterested to dig themselves out of the academic hole they are in. Finally, he implements an examination system that gives the people in the front (excluding the randomly selected 'strivers', who already have the exam answers) easy exams, the people behind them moderately tough exams, and the ones at the very back (Again, the majority) brutally hard exams.
He then lectures for the rest of the term in a whisper just loud enough to be heard by the front few rows.
At the end of the term, he checks the grades of everyone in class after they've gone through his implemented exam system. The ones with high grades are allowed to move to the front for the second term, and the ones with low grades are moved further back. He finds that most of the people with high grades are the people who were in front anyway, and most of the people in the back were the people who were in the back all along. He then explains that capitalism works by concentrating all the wealth and power in the hands of a very small segment of the population while forcing the vast majority of people to work long, hard hours for relatively tiny amounts of money and with little to no prospect of ever moving up because of the manifold inherent disadvantages stacked against them. Those that are in front, stay in front, and those at the back, stay in the back producing profits for the front.
link to the thread here:
http://www.glory-glory.co.uk/showthread.php?4303-Will-Communism-Ever-Work/page2