An economics class was discussing alternative economic models and how they worked. Several members of the class insisted that socialism was the only fair economic model and that it worked because no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.
The professor said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on socialism. 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 the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.
Could not be any simpler than that.
Sunday, 19 September 2010
Tuesday, 14 September 2010
A defeat for democracy
According to the BBC News the people of Stockton have decided against an elected Mayor.
They have chosen a leader and cabinet system which I actually think is even WORSE than having a directly elected mayor.
The people of Stockton will end up with someone with all the powers of an elected mayor and with the four year term of an elected mayor but whom they have no direct role in choosing. This puts power directly into the hands of the party groups. A victory for the political class and a defeat for democracy! Mind you, as only 19% bothered to vote then democracy is pretty much dead in Stockton anyway!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tees-11295057
PS 13,445 opted for a council leader with a cabinet system, and 12,513 for a directly elected mayor with a cabinet. I wonder how many spoilt papers there were?
They have chosen a leader and cabinet system which I actually think is even WORSE than having a directly elected mayor.
The people of Stockton will end up with someone with all the powers of an elected mayor and with the four year term of an elected mayor but whom they have no direct role in choosing. This puts power directly into the hands of the party groups. A victory for the political class and a defeat for democracy! Mind you, as only 19% bothered to vote then democracy is pretty much dead in Stockton anyway!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tees-11295057
PS 13,445 opted for a council leader with a cabinet system, and 12,513 for a directly elected mayor with a cabinet. I wonder how many spoilt papers there were?
Which party is ukip closest to?
I have been following a very interesting debate on another message board about "What is UKIP" and which of the main parties is it closest too. The exchange has been spoilt somewhat by one idiot who seems to think insults are a substitute for reasoned debate. However that is a usual tactic of the losing side, if you can't win the argument just resort to accusing the other contributions of being racists!
Anyway, UKIP has its own policies and its own views. It is definitely noticeable that UKIP was ahead of the curve on many things. Nuclear Power for example which UKIP has supported for many years and which is now Labour and Tory Policy. Controlled immigration which UKIP also advocated for many years and which is now accepted by Labour, Lib-Dems and Tories, (they of course want controlled NONE EU Immigration but UKIP just want controlled immigration), and now the re-introduction of Technical Schools, which was also part of the UKIP pro-grammar school policy, has been advocated by the Tories. So it's difficult to pigeon hole UKIP as right/centre/left since UKIP has elements of them all. Basically UKIP want what's best for Britain and don't care whether that is left/right/centre ideas, there are no bad ideas, its putting them into practise that's the problem. The European Union wasn't a bad idea, it was a great idea as a free trade block, a "Common Market" as it was originally sold to the people of the UK, I am myself 100% behind that. However, what that common market has grown into is an example of a bad implementation of a good idea! The European Union is not what I signed up to when we went into the Common Market!
Anyway, UKIP has its own policies and its own views. It is definitely noticeable that UKIP was ahead of the curve on many things. Nuclear Power for example which UKIP has supported for many years and which is now Labour and Tory Policy. Controlled immigration which UKIP also advocated for many years and which is now accepted by Labour, Lib-Dems and Tories, (they of course want controlled NONE EU Immigration but UKIP just want controlled immigration), and now the re-introduction of Technical Schools, which was also part of the UKIP pro-grammar school policy, has been advocated by the Tories. So it's difficult to pigeon hole UKIP as right/centre/left since UKIP has elements of them all. Basically UKIP want what's best for Britain and don't care whether that is left/right/centre ideas, there are no bad ideas, its putting them into practise that's the problem. The European Union wasn't a bad idea, it was a great idea as a free trade block, a "Common Market" as it was originally sold to the people of the UK, I am myself 100% behind that. However, what that common market has grown into is an example of a bad implementation of a good idea! The European Union is not what I signed up to when we went into the Common Market!
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