A practical application of socialist ideas (Read 1171 times)

MrH


    Shall we have a bit of fun and set up the Economic's class to reflect the American 'capitalist' system?

     

    1) out of the class of 100, 5 people whose parents had the the best GPAs from in college are selected (let's make it 5 to be more interesting than 1) to represent the rich.  They are given the text book, access to the teacher's office hours, personal tutoring by grad students and last year's test exam.  They are also able to lobby the teacher to include certain subjects and exclude others.

    2) the group of people with above mean GPAs get the text book and access to the lectures -- the middle class.

    3) The bottom half get nothing and are not even told when the class is meeting or when the test will be scheduled.

     

    The test is scored by completely objective criteria and is therefore completely fair.  The grade on this exam, determines which category you are in for the next exam -- total social mobility.  If students work hard enough, obviously anyone can get an 'A' in this class.

     

    And yes, this example is about as true to the practical implementation of capitalism as the OP is of socialism -- though, perhaps a bit more, since the OP is actually referring to communism.  But I thought it might be fun to set up a parallel bad example.

     

    The top 5 can optionally hire the grad students or other profressors to write their papers for them, and take the test.

    The process is the goal.

    Men heap together the mistakes of their lives, and create a monster they call Destiny.

    AmoresPerros


    Options,Account, Forums

      Come on now, AP, everyone knows that the Palestinians are an invented people.

       

      Is he the United States President yet? Cause I heard he was a front-runner.

       

      (Unless I have him mixed up with Ryan Hall. They look awfully similar.)

      It's a 5k. It hurt like hell...then I tried to pick it up. The end.

      PaulyGram


      Fast is better than long

        Nice post.

         

        I know some people who worked for the Gates Foundation in India.  The efficiency and shrewdness with which they spent Bill's money to make the world a better place was heartwarming.  I think Buffett could help society more through such a mechanism than by paying higher taxes.

         

        Agreed.

        2017 Goals: Give up goals; they're stoopid

         

        Give a man a fire and he'll be warm the rest of the night;
        Set a man afire and he'll be warm the rest of his life.

        What in the Jehu?

          Didn't Buffett promise to give away most of his money to the Gates foundation?

          PaulyGram


          Fast is better than long

            1. The Obama apperance on Betty White's birthday show was hilarious> He questioned her age and asked for a long form birth certificate.

            2. I don't think either side does it well. IMHO, the left is too big and offers too many handouts to the poor and the right wants to big a standing army and offers too many handouts to the rich.

            I wish the government was in the hand-up business not the handout business. Give all people who want it the opportunity and a path to remove themselves from government dependency. "Teach the folks to fish"

            3. I fully understand the original story to be a hoax, but I do think that without incentive a society can easily fall into a sedentary group scrambling for crumbs that fall from the kings table.

            2017 Goals: Give up goals; they're stoopid

             

            Give a man a fire and he'll be warm the rest of the night;
            Set a man afire and he'll be warm the rest of his life.

            What in the Jehu?


            Why is it sideways?

              My billionaire is cooler than your billionaire! 

                Leave aside the strange set up “no one could fail and no one could get an A”, though later everyone failed.

                 

                Not only was the original post a poor analogy for socialism, but I don’t think the hypothetical outcome is inevitable. There are plenty of real examples of averaged outcomes that don’t necessarily result in sub-optimal individual effort. The most obvious one is any sports team. The whole team wins or loses (or in cross-country for example, places). It would be unusual for a free-riding team member to cause higher performers to try less. Santonio Holmes quit on the Jets, but Sanchez was still doing his best to win. I would think it just as likely in the class example for those students who really cared about higher grades to be motivated to tutor less skilled students, or try even harder to salvage what they could of their grade. I’ve been on plenty of projects with free-riding team members that didn’t devolve into failure.

                 

                I recognize that this is a dumb thing to argue about, and this thread is a deep dark path to nowheresville.

                Come all you no-hopers, you jokers and rogues
                We're on the road to nowhere, let's find out where it goes
                PaulyGram


                Fast is better than long

                  I recognize that this is a dumb thing to argue about, and this thread is a deep dark path to nowheresville.

                   

                    +1, but...

                   

                  The cross country team member keeps trying because there is reward available to him in spite of the failure of the team. The same with Sanchez, he's working to increase his negotiations of a new contract. That almost sound like incentive breeds success.

                   

                  In the words of Ferris Bueller, I am against most -isms

                  Ferris: Not that I condone fascism, or any -ism for that matter. -Ism's in my opinion are not good. A person should not believe in an -ism, he should believe in himself. I quote John Lennon, "I don't believe in Beatles, I just believe in me." Good point there. After all, he was the walrus. I could be the walrus. I'd still have to bum rides off people.

                  There are zero successful pure economic experiments. They all require some intervention from the leadership/government. It's doubtful that the great minds of runningahead will uncover the correct economic model, but I'm willing to tout my unfounded factoids as much as the rest of you are. Wink

                  2017 Goals: Give up goals; they're stoopid

                   

                  Give a man a fire and he'll be warm the rest of the night;
                  Set a man afire and he'll be warm the rest of his life.

                  What in the Jehu?


                  Why is it sideways?

                    The OP is obvious propaganda. It is a political attack thinly veiled as an argument. The purpose of the analogy is to project an image of your political opponent (in this case, a possible Obama supporter) as illogical and naive. Arguing against the analogy is exactly what the OP wants because it immediately tars you with the terms of the analogy. Since the analogy itself is totally ridiculous and illogical, and its only intent is to smear an opponent, there's no way to argue logically against it. It's basically a trap to see if it can piss you off enough to say something equally illogical that can then be used to paint you as even more naive and illogical.

                     

                    The best thing to do is just be quiet and realize that these sorts of things say much more about the people who post them than they do about politics or their ideological opponents.

                    Trent


                    Good Bad & The Monkey

                      When a Chicagolander quotes Ferris, he wins a thread.

                        When a Chicagolander quotes Ferris, he wins a thread.

                         What's his prize? 

                        "If you have the fire, run..." -John Climacus

                        PaulyGram


                        Fast is better than long

                           What's his prize? 

                           

                          He lives in Chicagolandia, so he's already won, but if you could send me some food stamps and pay for my housing, I'd appreciate that.

                           

                          I understand the joy the rest of you would have in working for my benefit Wink

                           

                          As the OP, I'm not sure what the post says about me. I like 80% of the rest of America am an MOR guy. As I stated before, I don't think either side has it right, and can find plenty of flaws in the entire system. That said, I'm staying here because I still think it's the best system to date. The 60 minutes piece on Qatar this weekend has me looking into changing my mind.

                          2017 Goals: Give up goals; they're stoopid

                           

                          Give a man a fire and he'll be warm the rest of the night;
                          Set a man afire and he'll be warm the rest of his life.

                          What in the Jehu?

                            How about that Giants/Packers game yesterday, huh?

                             

                            PEYTON, LOOK AT MEEEE!

                            "If you have the fire, run..." -John Climacus


                            Hawt and sexy

                              Where does the Lizard King fit in all of this?

                              I'm touching your pants.


                              Why is it sideways?

                                 One very common tactic I have seen in political campaigns is to post outrageous political propaganda, then in the rest of the thread attempt to come off as totally moderate and MOR and like, why is everyone so pissed? The effect is to make those who are appropriately pissed off by the original posting of the propaganda seem like the irrational and extreme ones, even though the original post is intentionally inflammatory and illogical.

                                 

                                This tactic can be pretty effective in political warfare.