Number 6, these are all the kind of arguments that Ayn Rand put forth. And they all sound very glib. But they are simplistic. And wrong.

First of all, one is making an unwarranted and prejudicial leap of logic to use an expression like "Obama's socialism." This makes all kinds of assumptions without substantiation.

There is a big difference between earning an A in class on one's own merit, and obtaining a huge wad of money from others by offering loans they may need (mortgages, for example), bamboozle them into accepting usurious rates that will have them paying out four or five times the value of the house, and then, if they get into financial straits, taking the house away from them and keeping the money they've already paid in.

When those who "earn" the high grades do so by stealing them from the students who have to struggle—that's not anywhere near analogous to the described classroom situation.

I really hear Ayn Rand talking here!

####

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.

No, but you can even things out so that one portion of the population is not living in abject poverty while the other has more wealth than they can spend in dozens of lifetimes and are living in lavish luxury.

2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.

Not necessarily. I am receiving a regular monthly Social Security check. I paid into the system during my working years, and that money is mine. It's owed to me. That was the deal!!

But there are those who SAY that things like Social Security are unearned and undeserved government largess.

By the way, banks and financial institutions call that an "annuity." They think it's fine when they do it.

3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

True. Such as, say, building and maintaining public roads, bridges, infrastructure in general, maintaining police and fire departments for the protection of citizens, maintaining a military for protection from external enemies......

Taxes are the dues you pay to live in a civilized society.

And it's only right that those who benefit the most should pay the most.

4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!

True. But the overall wealth remains the same.

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.

This simply doesn't happen, nor will it ever. It is an extremely rare person who lacks the ambition to "make it" in the real world and is willing to wait for others to take care of him. In fact, it's frequently more likely that the kid who is born in a mansion will be content to live off papa's dough than to do something to actually create wealth.

This classroom example is another "John Carter on Barsoom" example. It makes a good story, and both Ayn Rand and Ronald Reagan loved that kind of thing. Remember Reagan's example of the "welfare queen?" He went on about how she was working the system and living in the lap of luxury from her welfare checks, and it turned out after considerable investigation, that she was a figment of Reagan's imagination. No such person. Nor could it have happened. But a lot of Republicans bought it!

Don Firth