Monday, March 02, 2009

Obamanomics

I received this in an email from my sister who like me is a staunch conservative while our brothers are the Liberal Democrats in the family:

Father/daughter talk...

A young woman was about to finish her first year of college. Like so many others her age, she considered herself to be a liberal Democrat, and among other liberal ideals, was very much in favor 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 Republican, 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 harbored 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 free world.'

Pax

5 comments:

leftbanker said...

Instead of passing around homilies of conservative values I would suggest you do some real reading. But let’s try to be specific. How do you suggest we fix health care in this country? Or perhaps you see it as a luxury? 650,000 Americans lost their jobs last month alone. I’m guessing few of them can afford to make their insurance payments (assuming they had health insurance in the first place, and some 50,000,000 Americans are without). As badly as Spain and the rest of Europe are taking this crisis, they still provide excellent health care for everyone.

P.S. Your story sounds like Obama and Bush. I would have never made it through college had it not been for generous government aid, mostly in the form of V.A. and Social Security survivor benefits.

Unknown said...
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Unknown said...

I find it interesting that you feel as though you can tell me what I should and shouldn't post on my blog. I have never felt the urge to offer advice about the content of your blog, I just enjoy reading it, even when I don't agree with your content. Maybe you should offer me the same courtesy.

leftbanker said...

Who said anything about what to post or not post? You seem to want to change the subject by pretending to be offended by something I didn't say or even infer.

I just asked a very direct question reltating to the post? If you don't want to be challenged on what you post I won't comment. If you don't want to answer my question I understand.

Health care is a thorny issue for conservatives because they have no models while successful liberal models abound. I have visited a lot of Spanish hospitals and clinics just to see the socialized medicine hell American conservatives preach about. I talk to every single person I know here about health care. They all complain about certain things but they wouldn't trade their system for ours if you paid them by the minute. Health care is actually in their constitution and Spaniards are generally satisfied with the care they recieve. We have 50,000,000 people who aren't covered, or are they all like the lazy student in your letter and not deserving of a doctor's care?

leftbanker said...

Shoot, now I don't know if I meant to say imply instead of infer but they are both acceptable depending on what I meant to say which I don't.