Wish I'd thought of this - video maker asks college students to redistribute their grades to academically-poor students.
Not that this is a new idea, the concept isn't nearly as amusing when merely presented as a hypothetical compared to directly asking students.
During my unemploymeny days I would sometimes borrow a similar idea of progressive splitting of restaurant checks and pitch to my working lefty friends that we divide the check up by income, instead of by what we ate.
Some were amused, some changed the subject but none of them volunteered to give it a try.
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Day-to-day progressivism
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I saw this, but it wouldn't let me embed so I didn't do anything with it.
ReplyDeleteYou're assuming the purpose of government is to not play a role in providing support and aide to those in need, or in a way that makes the playing field more level, or in a way that brings broad-based equality to the most people.
ReplyDeleteNow, I could be wrong (I generally interpret Hartwell incorrectly), but he isn't assuming anything about the role of government in this post. He seems to assume nothing and the only thing he claims is that leftists don't like redistribution when it is presented as a very immediate and personal microcosm.
ReplyDeleteThe only way his point works is if it is an analogy between how liberals view the role of government and how they view the role of others at dinner or the way academics work. The implication is that the left is inconsistently applying their principles between government and their personal lives. But again, that only works if the role of government is like the roles of the things listed in his comparison.
ReplyDeleteIf the role of government is indeed to ensure equality of outcomes, Michael (Hawkins), than why should it not also be ensuring the equality of outcomes in other areas, such as academics?
ReplyDeleteIts role is not to ensure the equality of outcomes, but the equality of opportunity.
ReplyDeleteThat's mincing words. Besides, the left has always been more interested in equality of outcome (if you think the two are separable in a black/white fashion). Either way, GPA can be an indicator of opportunity as much as for outcome so the comparison and argument still stand.
ReplyDeleteMr. Hawkins, I completely agree that equality of opportunity is more important, and I think you understand that is the norm for my side.
ReplyDeleteMy feeling here is that it is not brave to declare that OTHER people should have to make sacrifices for society. It is much more principled to say that you yourself have to make a sacrifice. Now some progressives like Bill Gates are willing to do that, but from my anecdotal restaurant example, my progressive friends paused when asked to sacrifice for others.
And as for Mr Hawkins original post, I do not think those are the proper role of government. However, some of those are worthy goals that I would like to see accomplished, but I don't think the government is any good at accomplishing them.
ReplyDeleteAnd past performance tends to back up that belief.
ReplyDelete