Thought you'd enjoy this...I'm waiting for SamFisher's discounting of this in 3, 2, 1... A young woman was about to finish her first year of college. Like so many others her age she considered herself to be a very liberal Democrat and had grown to be in strong favor for the distribution of all wealth in America. She felt deeply ashamed that her father was a rather staunch conservative which she expressed openly. One day she was challenging her father on his beliefs and his opposition to higher taxes on the rich & more welfare programs. In the middle of her heart-felt diatribe based upon the lectures she had from her far left professors at her school, he stopped her and asked her point blank, how she was doing in school. She answered rather haughtily that she had a 4.0 GPA, and let him know that it was tough to maintain. That she had to study all the time, never had time to go out and party like other people she knew. She didn't even have time for a boyfriend and didn't really have many college friends because of spending all her time studying. That she was taking a more difficult curriculum. Her father listened and then asked, "How is your friend Mary." She replied, "Mary is barely getting by", she continued, "all she has is barely a 2.0 GPA" adding, "and all she takes are easy classes and she never studies." But to explain further she continued emotionally, "But Mary is so very popular on campus, college for her is a blast, she goes to all the parties all the time and very often doesn't even show up for classes because she is too hung over." Her father then asked his daughter, "Why don't you go to the Dean's office and ask him to deduct a 1.0 off your 4.0 GPA and give it to her friend who only had a 2.0." He continued, "That way you will both have a 3.0 GPA and certainly that would be a fair equal distribution of GPA." The daughter visibly shocked by the fathers suggestion angrily fired back, "That wouldn't be fair! I worked really hard for mine, I did without and Mary has done little or nothing, she played while I worked real hard!" The father slowly smiled and said, "Welcome to the Republican Party."
It made me want to try to get into Mary's pants, she sounds like a good time; but then again, I bet that repressed young goody two shoes is a freaking vixen in the sack, I bet she's feeling a bit randy after all that studying.....
Hey, I like this story! But we need to fill in some crucial details if the analogy is going to work. Let's say the daughter has another friend, called, oh... I dunno... let's call him George. "George totally goofs off and drinks beer all the time, Dad, but he gets really good grades! Why is that! Waaaaaa!" "Well, daughter, you see, George's great grandfather got some excellent grades by sneaking notes into the exams. It turns out that universities will let families stockpile grades. So George's grandfather, and his father, and then George himself have been using the grades that his great grandfather got!" "Why the **** didn't you give me any of your grades, dad?" "Because I didn't have any from my father. Basically we're screwed, but I like what the Georges of the world say about family values, and they're always making me pee in my pants about people who are out to get us! So I like them." "Oh, okay." "Welcome to the Republican party, my daughter."
Of course, this clealry illustrates that wealth is directly related to effort and sacrifice. When will people realize that analogies like this don't work, because they fil to account for so many of the real variables in play. Yes if you are lucky enough to be in a position to benefit from it, hard work can lead to wealth. But people fail to realize how many people in our country are, by virtue of nothing but their starting position, either never able to get the education needed to afford them the opportunities, or having to tread water so hard just to keep from drowning that the idea of saving, etc. isn't a reality. People who have the affluence or at least middle class comfort which enables them to face health issues without it meaning a complete disaster, people who don't have to try and get through virtual war zones to get to classes in schools that most teachers of any quality avoid out of a desire for self preservation, and which don't have the funding to afford books and equipment taken for granted in other areas, people who are expected to take care of their parents, grandparents, siblings etc. for hours a night while trying to keep up with their studies because the only parent in the home able to work has to hold down two jobs so the family can pay the rent, etc....these people can afford to smile at specious analogies while welcoming others to the Republican Party. The rest of us are more prone to sigh while trying to introduce Republicans like this fellow to the real world. The starting points for everyone are not nearly the same, therefore a simple factor like work ethic is not nearly enough to level the playing field. And, besides, if this daughter didn;t see the punchline coming from a mile off, I donlt care what her GPA is, she'll need a trust fund to be able to afford to stay in the RP tax bracket.
She must be rather dim if she had to work that hard in freshman-level classes. Also, she must not be going to a very good school if she can get a four point and obviously not know how to make complete sentences. I'm guessing Rice.
Please don't let B-bob's inability to make complete sentences tarnish the reputation of all Rice alumni.
Dude, like, who really talks in sentences like maybe when I was, six, or something this teacher made me care about it but then all my liberal profs at Rice liberated me and my creativity putting cool bleeding heart equations I mean ideas in my vast head, you betcha!
remind me to spit on the custodian and call him lazy and a drunk for not working as hard as I do. that'll teach him. damn blue collar workers, if only they worked harder and stopped partying on the weekends would they become white collar workers.
im basically republican when it comes to economics but this little story is stupid. it basically says that people who don't make a lot of money don't work hard. i think we all know thats crap.
Nonsense, robbie380, Paris Hilton is the one of the hardest working women in the the world, and if she went to college, would be one of the smartest.
The beauty of this simpleminded line of attack though is that it's equally effective pitting janitors, for example, against welfare recipients, for example. (Or worse, but equally effective, it pits poor whites against poor blacks in the south.) Never mind that Republican economic policies favor the rich to the harm of janitors -- this argument works. In fact, it's a perfect microcosm of the basic Republican economic pitch to average Americans. Sad, isn't it?
