I’ve often thought about an experiment by asking students if they feel that incomes should be shared, and then asking after that whether the students with the highest marks would like to give some of their marks to students with the lowest marks. Not really practical, never mind the problems with an ethics committee. But this, on the other hand, did the same thing in a much more effective way.

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 new 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.

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, anotherperson 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.

Whether it is a true story I cannot say, but no one would doubt that things would work out more or less just like it says.

[My thanks to Peter S. for passing this along.]