A Father Daughter conversation:
A young woman was about to finish her first year of college. Like so
many others her age, she considered herself to be very labour, and
among other labour ideals, was very much in favour of higher taxes to
support more government programs, in other words redistribution of
wealth.
She was deeply ashamed that her father was a rather staunch blue
ribbon liberal, a feeling she openly expressed. Based on the lectures
that she had participated in, and the occasional chat with a
professor, she felt that her father had for years harboured an evil,
selfish desire to keep what he thought should be his.
One day she was challenging her father on his opposition to higher
taxes on the rich and the need for more government programs.
The self-professed objectivity proclaimed by her professors had to be
the truth and she indicated so to her father. He responded by asking
how she was doing in school.
Taken aback, she answered rather haughtily that she had a 4.0 GPA, and
let him know that it was tough to maintain, insisting that she was
taking a very difficult course load and was constantly studying, which
left her no 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 she spent all her time studying.
Her father listened and then asked, “How is your friend Audrey doing?”
She replied, “Audrey is barely getting by. All she takes are easy
classes, she never studies and she barely has a 2.0 GPA. She is so
popular on campus; college for her is a blast. She’s always invited to
all the parties and lots of times she doesn’t even show up for classes
because she’s too hung over.”
Her wise father asked his daughter, “Why don’t you go to the Dean’s
office and ask him to deduct 1.0 off your GPA and give it to your
friend who only has a 2.0. That way you will both have a 3.0 GPA and
certainly that would be a fair and equal distribution of GPA.”
The daughter, visibly shocked by her father’s suggestion, angrily
fired back, “That’s a crazy idea, how would that be fair! I’ve worked
really hard for my grades! I’ve invested a lot of time, and a lot of
hard work! Audrey has done next to nothing toward her degree. She
played while I worked my tail off!”
The father slowly smiled, winked and said gently, “Welcome to the
Liberal side of the fence.”
If anyone has a better explanation of the difference between Liberal
and Labour/Greens or progressive or neocon I’m all ears.
If you ever wondered what side of the fence you sit on, this is a
great test!
If a Liberal doesn’t like guns, he doesn’t buy one.
If a Labour /Greenie doesn’t like guns, they want all guns outlawed.
If a Liberal is a vegetarian, he doesn’t eat meat.
If a Labour/Green is a vegetarian, he wants all meat products banned
for everyone.
If a Liberal is homosexual, he quietly leads his life.
If a Labour/Green is homosexual, he demands legislated respect.
If a Liberal is down-and-out, he thinks about how to better his situation.
A Labour /Greenie wonders who is going to take care of him.
If a Liberal doesn’t like a talk show host, he switches channels.
Labour /Greenie’s demand that those they don’t like be shut down.
If a Liberal is a non-believer, he doesn’t go to church.
A Labour /Greenie non-believer wants any mention of God and religion silenced.
(Unless it’s a foreign religion, of course!)
Boadicea's Chariot 
Excellent Zen.
Top man Zen
Zen spot on, except it should read Tory here in the UK and not Liberal as they are the greenies.
So true…
Not sure anyone knows what the liberals are. I read yesterday that Cable is thinking of not voting for his own education reforms, WTF?
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20101130/tuk-cable-i-support-fees-but-may-not-vot-45dbed5.html
Rick, I don’t know where it started – Canada’s a fair bet.
Amen!
Here’s another…
Suppose that every evening, 10 men go out for beer and the bill for all ten
comes to R100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go
something like this:
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay R1.
The sixth would pay R3.
The seventh would pay R7.
The eighth would pay R12.
The ninth would pay R18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay R59.
So, that’s what they decided to do……. The 10 men drank in the bar every
evening and were quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner
said, “Since you are all such good customers, I’m going to reduce the cost
of your daily beer by R20”
Drinks for the 10 men would now cost just R80.
The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes.
So the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free.
But what about the other six men, the paying customers – how could they divide the
R20 windfall so that everyone would get his fair share?
They realised that R20 divided by six is R3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody’s
share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to
drink his beer.
So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man’s bill
by a higher percentage the poorer he was, to follow the principle of the tax
system they had been using, and he proceeded to work out the amounts he
suggested that each should now pay.
Therefore, the fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing.
The sixth now paid R2 instead of R3 (33% saving).
The seventh now paid R5 instead of R7 (28% saving).
The eighth now paid R9 instead of R12 (25% saving).
The ninth now paid R14 instead of R18 (22% saving).
The tenth now paid R49 instead of R59 (16% saving).
Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to
drink for free. But, once outside the bar, the men began to compare their
savings.
“I only got a rand out of the R20 saving,” declared the sixth man. He
pointed to the tenth man, “but he got R10!”
“Yeah, that’s right,” exclaimed the fifth man. “I only saved a rand too.
It’s unfair – he got 10 times more benefit than me!”
“That’s true!” shouted the seventh man. “Why should he get R10 back, when I
got only R2? The wealthy always win!”
“Wait a minute,” yelled the first four men in unison, “we didn’t get
anything at all. This new tax system exploits the poor!”
The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.
The next night the tenth man didn’t show up for drinks, so the nine sat
down and had their beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill,
they discovered something important. They didn’t have enough money between
all of them for even half of the bill!
And that, boys and girls, journalists, labour unions and government
ministers, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes
will naturally get the most benefit from a tax reduction.
Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore.
In fact, they might start drinking overseas, where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.
😉
For those who understand, no explanation is needed.
For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible.
hat happened to common sense?
Spot on, Zen 🙂