After reading this I was kinda pissed off. It isn't a good analogy for what the writer intended and I'm sure, at its roots, is just some pro-Republican BS. Part of me thought 'how stupid are these people?' They could clearly see that it was not going to work if they all maintained the status quo. Did no one think to help each other out? To form study groups so that everyone could at least pass? Perhaps that's the thing that bothers me about the meme most. That there was zero problem solving. There was just dogged persistence along a path of destruction. A path where no one wins.
I wondered if the outcome were tied to the age of the alleged participants - younger people sometimes having a different skill set than older ones. Would older people with more life skills behave the same way? (Hey, if you hang out with a scientist you gotta be prepared for questions like this). So I started to think about other scenarios like this. Enter : the government shutdown.
It seemed very similar. Neither side wanting to let the other have a clear 'win'. All of us paying the price. In light of that fiasco that lack of problem solving seems even more key. I saw zero problem solving on this front either. Zero working together. Zero Fucks TM given about dragging the entire country down.
There I was up on my high horse and finger pointing from Olympus about the faults of others. That's when I got blindsided. That's usually when it happens, right as I hit my preaching stride. That little voice whispered read #5 again. Which I did. Groan. That one hits closer to home as it directly applies to my work situation. A situation where I am doing most of the work and someone else is receiving most of the benefit. I have been watching myself slide toward the edge while balancing a sizable I-don't-give-a-fuck-chip on my shoulder. I am doing EXACTLY what those college students did, exactly what Congress did. I am staging a work slowdown. Not consciously, but I am still doing it. Failing to see that the long term effect of my action is bad for the lab and bad for me.
I don't want the lab to shut down. I don't really want to be the one carrying it either. I don't want to be the tool that someone uses to further their career. I don't want to be just a cog in the machine of churning out terrible science that I am embarrassed to have my name on.
Maybe the lab will shut down. But I want to walk away with my head held high knowing that I did my best and making it clear that failure should be laid at someone else's feet.
Some days I really hate that little voice.
An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently 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 will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A.... (substituting grades for dollars - something closer to home and more readily understood by all).
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.
As the tests proceeded, 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.
To their great surprise, ALL FAILED 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. (Please pass this on) These are possibly the 5 best sentences you'll ever read and all applicable to this experiment:
1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.
2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.
3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.
4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!
5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.
The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama's plan".. All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A.... (substituting grades for dollars - something closer to home and more readily understood by all).
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.
As the tests proceeded, 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.
To their great surprise, ALL FAILED 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. (Please pass this on) These are possibly the 5 best sentences you'll ever read and all applicable to this experiment:
1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.
2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.
3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.
4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!
5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.
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