Thursday, July 05, 2012

Letter to the French President


                                                                                                 Getrealfrance
                                                                                                 13 rue paul valery
                                                                                                 Cabestany 66330
                                                                                                 France
                                                                                                 July 6 2012
François Hollande
Élysée Palace
55 rue du faubourg Saint-Honoré
75008 Paris, France


Dear Monsieur Le Président
This is an interesting experiment on socialism. Have a read and let me know what you think...
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 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 socialism ". 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.
It could not be any simpler than that.
The professor concluded :

  • 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.

Sincerely,
Karen O'Reilly
(Tax paying resident of France)
PS. I was not sure which address to send this letter to ??

  • Élysée Palace in Paris or
  • Fort de Brégançon, in southeastern France or
  • the Hôtel de Marigny; standing next to the Élysée Palace, or 
  • the Château de Rambouillet or
  • the Domaine National de Marly or
  • the Domaine de Souzy-la-Briche 

7 comments:

  1. Did you write this in French?

    It's a very Republican idea showing little compassion for those who cannot lift themselves out of poverty and so typical of the black and white answers many Republicans in the US use to miss the point completely.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There is a happy medium there somewhere I think!
      I've written it in French too :)

      Delete
  2. And don't forget La Lanterne at Versailles which Sarkozy nicked from his prime ministers while leaving its upkeep on their budget...Hollande is keeping his paws on it too....

    ReplyDelete
  3. What about intrinstic motivation? Don't some people do their best because they want to and know their worth inside.

    Maybe I'm naive but I don't believe every student in the class would stop working. When I tell my pupils the mark won't count in the average almost hallf will still hand in the best work they can do.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Agreed, there would be a percentage that would still want to work, because they have a sense of pride/self worth.
      Where I live, the average wage is 1300euros per month. One would be better off au chomage, claiming rent allowance or getting social housing and all the other social benefits. So the question they ask themselves is, why work, when the state is going to bale them out.
      I've known many people whose main motivation to get a CDD ( long term contract) is that they know will get the dole when they get themselves fired.
      That does not appear to be a system that is working?

      Delete
  4. Brilliant Karen. A big thank you from the entrepreneurs. I hope you can can deliver the French version to him!
    Regards Erik G.

    ReplyDelete

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