In Perspective

In light of the topic of wealth distribution, when I was a Sophomore in high school my social studies teacher kind of told us an interesting little 'metaphor' to kind of put it in perspective, and why it doesn't really work in helping society. I may have mentioned this before but bare with me, because I was told this twelve years ago and it stuck with me.

In life, you got your over achievers, your under achievers, and those just trying to scrape by. In a communist society, they expect the over achievers, out of the goodness of their hearts, to put in maximum efforts to help their fellow man. The problem is, often times the under achievers are just downright lazy and expect everything to just be handed to them.

Well, in this scenerio, you have a classroom. The teacher informs his students that everybody in that class will recieve a 'C', which is considered average. How they are going to attain that C is because the middle of the road workers, who would have earned the C regardless, will do the work expected of them, while the over achievers who would generally earn A's and B's, will bring up the grades of the dumbasses who generally recieve D's and F's, so that everyone gets a fair grade of a C.

However, at the end of the class, is that how it is going to work out? Are the normally A students going to do the work necessary to help their D and F classmates achieve their C's? Some might, but in the long run I would have to say that this is a No. The D and F students, knowing that they are going to get a C regardless, will continue to put out shoddy work, because they know they are already going to get a C. And about those A students? Their level of work output will likely go down as well, because they have lost the drive to work for that A, that A was their reward for their hard work and now they find that they are working hard to help the slackers who don't want to put in the effort.

This is a system that rewards bad behavior and punishes good behavior. When you start handing out a C average grade, hoping that the As would carry the weight of the Fs, you will find that productivity will go down. And the same can be said in the workfield. If no matter what you did, no matter how hard you worked, your paycheck would be stripped from you to help the guy who has little ambition and motivation for his own career, where does that leave you?

The Constitution promises "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness", and everyone is entitled to that. But the pursuit of happiness does not guarantee happiness. There is nothing there that promises a steady paycheck and three square meals a day. Nothing that states that free healthcare is a right. Socialists would have you think that everything is a right, you are entitled to all of this and more. Not so.

You are entitled to Life, which can be taken from you if you take away somebody else's right to life. You are entitled to Liberty, which is basically freedom to live your life the way you see fit. You can do anything you want as long as it does not impose or threaten anybody else's life or liberty (and of course, is not against the law). The Pursuit of Happiness is something that I think most people misunderstand, because they think you are entitled to happiness.

Not so. You have the right to pursue it, however. Happiness has many definitions according to various people, and the pursuit of happiness is different from person to person. And that might qualify as Success. Some people find happiness in the satisfaction of achieving something, whether that be a good job, a nice house in the suburbs, or maybe the pursuit of partying every night until 3AM to wake up with a hangover the next day. Whatever makes you happy, it is your right to pursue that.

the problem is, some people *socialists* believe that everyone is entitled to happiness and shouldn't have to pursue it. Hence, the need for handouts. the need to give low income people that subprime mortgage that there is no earthly way they can afford. The need for free health care because of how living the lifestyle of smoking pot, drinking and lot's of anonymous sex in the sixties has led to a person destroying their body and now they think its the government's job to make sure they feel better.

Wrong, wrong and no. These are not 'rights', this is part of individual responsibility.

I find it funny how effective labels can be in a very non-funny way.
Motivation and Ambition to be successful? that's just greed, and we need to take the money of those that are successful away to give it to somebody who is not so successful so they can have a chance.

Well, you start taking away that drive which motivates people to be successful, you will find that they will decide that it just isn't worth working as hard as they were when they are not going to be rewarded for their efforts.

And the people who are recieving the hand outs? Why should they work at all if its just going to be given to them?

People should be encouraged to work hard and be successful, there is nothing wrong with wanting stability in life, to have a nice car and a good home, a comfortable nest egg to retire on. The desire to be successful is not greed (that's what some libs would have you to believe), it is in fact ingrained in the US Constitution as the part of the Pursuit of Happiness.

I have nothing against people being successful and making a crapload of money. If they worked hard for it, they deserve it. But again, what is the point of working your tail off when you don't reap the rewards of your actions?

Just a thought. . .