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, 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.
Another example: simply draw a wagon on the chalk board with people riding in the wagon and people pulling the wagon and I would ask the students what happens when there is more riding than pulling? The answer is obvious, the wagon stops. It is the same with an economic system. Someone has to pull the wagon.
Margaret Thatcher, the ex-Prime Minster of England once said: "Socialism
grinds to a halt when the government runs out of other people's money to
spend." Socialism has never worked but, idiots in governments never give up trying.