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.
Hat tip: Dave Weinbaum
Torah Ideals 
#1 by James Henry on March 15, 2011 - 11:02 pm
The idea that this ill done experiment proofs that socialism can not work, is sadly wrong. Reality is that social programs, such as social security, do NOT make the poor as wealthy as the rich. In fact, in the early 2000’s George W Bush gave tax cuts to the wealthiest 2% in America. These tax cuts cost America lot’s of money, so many claimed that we needed to cut the social programs in place. Before the Bush Tax Cuts the wealthy HAD kept working hard, and they still made lot’s more than the poorest in America while those social programs were intact. Nothing could be simpler than that! And helping the poorest, so they can afford a house, food, and a healthy living, helps them to be capable of purchasing MORE from the wealthy. Let’s face it, if times get hard enough for the poor, they will NOT buy new cars, computers, or many other things, since they can’t afford housing. Less demand for a companies product DOES affect the company, and the owners/investors. So obviously neglecting the poor will have a negative affect on the wealthy. The type of social programs that are place in America are similar to grading on a curve, and no matter what this professor wants to say, I’ve never seen students give up because they were being graded on a curve. The professor in this story has proven one thing right though, if we forced EVERYONE to make the exact same pay, then the hard working will stop working hard. This isn’t the case with the current “Social” programs in the USA.