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An experiment of Obama's plan follow this blog post

posted by on July 24, 2009

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 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 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 it be any simpler than that?

A good friend sent me this post and I was curious to hear others opinions? Please add your 2-cents.

bonacorsi equalizer experiment obama plan socialism steven story
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9 comments

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  • 1 point 3 months ago

    Steve,

    Interesting post, appropriate or not.  And, Courtney, you wrote a tremendous response which is illuminating and thoughtful.

    Possibly just as appropriate would be to ask how this ties into organizational behaviors, and what businesses can learn from observing closely what is unfolding in front of us.

    On the national scene, we are seeing, from all sides, turf wars, over-regulation, "change" as a goal rather than a direction, ego-driven leaders willing to sacrifice the future to protect their power base, appointed or annointed officials who are quick to name-call or slander before they know the facts, and on, and on, and on...

    All of these players are present, to some degree, in many companies today. Those companies have the chance to reflect upon their operations and determine how much of this silliness takes place within their environments. It might be a great way for a CEO to show true leadership by asking his executive committee, officers, VP's and Directors to give some thought to how much of this national play is being replicated within the organization.

    Of course, few, if any, would have the confidence to do that...

     

    Just a thought...

     

     

  • 1 point 3 months ago

    A friend sent me a copy of a bumper sticker:

    "Fairness isn't giving my money to lazy people"

    and he followed up with a Ronald Regan quote:

    "I believe that the BEST social program is a JOB!"

    Let's get us all back to work!

    my $0.02

  • 1 point 3 months ago

    Your exactly right Steven & Don, be afraid very afraid of this administration and where we are headed. "Czar" titles have a more Socialist/Communist leaning than here in the U.S. Let's see, did we ever hear the left say allow Bush "to do his job" and all the extremist leftists belching their hot air which is choking me and the real cause of Global Warming! On your small business, I get sick and tired of the government (which is on this kick of giving out contracts to small businesses to meet goals) that in no way can do the job without large company support. That's why big business has to team with them, do most of the work and get less than half the profit. Also I see the government breaking up pieces of work involving numerous small business contracts which involves more government workers in the contract department and oversight and costing more taxpayer money. I am not slamming small business but there is a flip side to the coin. Thank God for big business as can you imagine small businesses doing the work of Halliburton in the Gulf War. Heck government would have still been writting that contract to award. No wonder it was let out excusively to a large company-government contracting would have made a total mess of it!!! Complain all you want about Halliburton but few companies could have done that job and let Halliburton use small business where appropriate. Halliburton was never the problem-government procurement office is! 

  • 1 point 3 months ago

    I'm glad to see talk of politics in here.  Have you ever wondered about the motivations behind that old saying "Don't talk politics/religion"?  Bull feathers.  I suspect the same lot who want us to believe that money is the source of all evil.  I say talk it and talk it and talk it until it reaches the hollow corridors of power.  Those in power generally WISH the populace wouldn't talk/pay attention to what they're doing.  Look at the government we have today.  We brought it on ourselves. 

    "The time is fast approaching when to call a man a patriot will be the deepest insult you can offer him. Patriotism now means advocating plunder in the interest of the privileged classes of the particular State system into which we have happened to be born." ~  Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy quotes (Russian moral Thinker, Novelist and Philosopher, notable for his influence on Russian literature and politics. 1828-1910)

    And then, after I posted this and just as I was getting ready to get myself a cup of coffee, the following comes into my email from one of my more politically rabid acquaintances  - for those of you who don't want to read any more politics (although the following story deals w/ remuneration), stop here.  You've been forewarned.  For those of you who do, read on:

    The Hair Cut
    One day a florist went to a barber for a haircut.

    After the cut, he asked about his bill, and the barber replied, 'I cannot accept money from you,  I'm doing community service this week.'  The florist was pleased and left the shop.

    When the barber went to open his shop the next morning, there was a 'thank you' card and a dozen roses waiting for him at his door. 

    Later, a cop comes in for a haircut, and when he tries to pay his bill, the barber again replied, 'I cannot accept money from you, I'm doing community service this week.' The cop was happy and left the shop. 

    The next morning when the barber went to open up, there was a 'thank you' card and a dozen donuts waiting for him at his door.

    Then a Congressman came in for a haircut, and when he went to pay his bill, the barber again replied, 'I can not accept money from you. I'm doing community service this week.' The Congressman was very happy and left the shop. 

    The next morning, when the barber went to open up, there were a dozen Congressmen lined up waiting for a free haircut.

    And that, my friends, illustrates the fundamental difference between the citizens of our country and the politicians who run it.

    ;)

  • 1 point 3 months ago

    I think that in general, this is a bit off topic, if the topics intended for ERE are Human Resources in general, and Recruiting in particular.

    Not that you could not apply the question to HR, but I think framing it with your politics, or anyone's politics, could lead the boards into territory into which it does not benefit anyone, HR-wise, to go.

    It is an interesting experiment, and I can definitely see exactly that scenario resulting for a high-school class -- but it's not realistic, and in no way resembles a true experiment that uses scientific method.  Used as a political analogy, it's a very simplistic way of looking at an incredibly complicated mix of taxation, federal and state oversight and budgets, and health and welfare programs.

    This is really about compensation, which in our market system would have the dissatisfied high performers moving to another class which did reward them, and that class would in the end be more satisfied and successful.

    Just my two cents.

  • 1 point 3 months ago

    Steven,

    This story has been going around for years, so while I believe it makes a very good point/statement, it is not Obama-specific, and I don't think it's that simple.  He is no more a complete socialist than any other Democrat we've had as President.  I generally lean to the right in my political views, and I apologize for getting on my soapbox here...

    We spent eight years with a guy I voted for and there were no less numbers telling the world how great he was when he was cutting taxes during periods of economic growth.  

Meanwhile, regardless how any of us feel about the universality of health care, no one can contend that those of us who have been paying for it are paying 4-5 times more than we were paying at the beginning of the decade. 

    My husband is a small business owner, and I've watched as big businesses with lobbyists and revolving door politicians continue to make sure he has no shot at competing unless he works through them, which means they keep 95% of the profits and companies like his and those he's worked for do 95% of the work and keep 5% of the profits.

    
And the backdrop to all of this, right or wrong, is the Fed has technically overregulated the economy by forcefeeding cash into the banking system nonstop for the last 9 years or so, resulting in artificial prosperity while government has done nothing to save for the rainy day in which we now walk.


    So now we have a President that has proven the willingness to listen to different points of view and even take a traditionally conservative approach to several of his final stances, and the 'enlightened' branch of outside the beltway Republican pontificators want to criticize him before he comes to any conclusion whatsoever, sometimes ignorantly when it's Congress and not the President building legislation since that's actually their job and not his.

    What this President has taken on in his short term is far more exhaustive than the last administration in its entire term. This President has actually risen to challenges rather than allow things to crumble him first. For that alone, the mouthy wing of the GOP really needs to stand down and (1.) allow the guy to do his job, and (2.) give up the mantle to the real successors to the Reagan wing if we're fortunate enough to see any still exist and haven't been choked to death by the extremist verbal smog the loudest voices continue to belch.

    Thanks for indulging me.

    Courtney

  • 1 point 4 months ago

    Steven,

    You're right spot on!

    Jim 

  • 0 points 3 months ago

    Agreed, this is a political post, but does anyone disagree that HR is not also political? It will be HR having to deal with the healthcare benefits, it will be HR having to do the layoff's when then spending becomes out of control (you name the government program - state or federal that is not out of control in spending); and HR having to deal with the consequences between those who received timely and proper care and those that did not?

    Therefore, I disagree that this post is not appropriate for this forum. Additionally, I do not believe the Federal Government should take over (nationalize or socialize) healthcare, we need reform yes, so reform and lower costs, but there is no need to take over. Lastly, there is nothing wrong with making $, what we have is redundancy, waste, and non-value-added cost in the current process that needs reform.

    Thank you for those that have shared their views so far, perhaps I am over-alarmed watching the country bankrupt itself.

  • 1 point 3 months ago

    Steven - You are certainly NOT over-alarmed. Be scared, very, very  scared..