♠ LIBERALS PLEASE ANSWER ♠ How accurate is this PARABLE?

Question

(My dad tells this to me and my conservative sisters all the time)

A young woman was about to finish her first year of college. Like so many others her age she considered herself to be a very liberal Democrat and was for distribution of all wealth.

She felt deeply ashamed that her father was a rather staunch Republican which she expressed openly. One day she was challenging her father on his beliefs and his opposition to higher taxes on the rich & the addition of more government welfare
programs. Based on the lectures that she had participated in and the occasional chat with a professor she felt that for years her father had obviously harbored an evil, even selfish desire to keep what he thought should be his.

The self professed objectivity proclaimed by her professors had to be the truth and she indicated so to her father.

He stopped her and asked her point blank, how she was doing in school. She answered rather haughtily that she had a 4.0 GPA, and let him know that it was tough to maintain. That she studied all the time, never had 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 of spending all her time studying.

That she was taking a more difficult curriculum.

Her father listened and then asked, "How is your good friend Mary doing?"

She replied, "Mary is barely getting by." She continued, "She barely has a 2.0 GPA," adding, "and all she takes are easy classes and she never studies." "But Mary is so very popular on campus, college for her is a blast, she goes to all the parties all the time and very often doesn't even show up for classes because she is too hung over."

Her father then asked his daughter, "Why don't you go to the Dean's office and ask him to deduct a 1.0 off your 4.0 GPA and give it to your friend who only has a 2.0." He continued, "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 wouldn't be fair! I worked really hard for mine, I did without and Mary has done little or nothing, she played while I worked real hard!"

The father slowly smiled, winked and said,

"Welcome to the Republican Party"

Answer 1

Nice story but here's where it falls apart;

"Mary has done little or nothing, she played while I worked real hard!"

The Republicans think the poor are "playing" while they're struggling to stay above water. You keep minimizing the struggle of the poor, voting down minimum wage increases, voting HUGE tax cuts for the ultra rich and yet you still wonder why the poor vote Democratic...

Answer 2

Don't think your daddy's parable "works" because it assumes that ALL liberals and ALL conservatives are 100% exactly alike. Neither group is monolithic.

Many people fall in the middle.

Also, this parable assume that 100% of every rich person worked very hard to become rich, and 100% of every poor person is just a partier that doesn't give a rat's patoot.

Some rich folk inherited their wealth, some people work hard for a long time, and then their job gets shipped to India or some other part of the world.

I don't think the issues this partisan parable seeks to tell is as black and white as portrayed.

Answer 3

that's what i think of: representation became the final thank you to of course talk a message to a mass crowd. additionally, it form of feels that representation is greater actual remembered then the meatless info. Parables look to stick out in my suggestions on an identical time as i won't be able to unavoidably remember those easy instructions and statements that Jesus made. So, to sum it up, representation could have been the main purely understood, fairly by ability of the difficulty-unfastened human beings, and parables are greater actual remembered.

Answer 4

What kind of school is this girl going to? To get a 4.0 GPA you have to sacrifice everything, but can get a 2.0 by not attending classes? That is crazy!

Seems to me the girl ought to go for a 3.5. If my math is correct, doesn't that mean she'll have time for at least a boyfriend, or going to a party every other weekend. And it won't change her post college prospects substantially.

Answer 5

Spoke like a true spoiled brat who never had to work a day in her life. When Daddy was done with the lecture, did he write a big check to the daughter only if she promised not to marry a minority?

Answer 6

Liberalism is the belief system of children and child-like thinkers. More young adults are liberal than conservative, but they usually outgrow it, which is why we always have more conservatives than liberals across the board.
Though your parable hits the mark quite nicely, few, if any liberals here will be enlightened. Here's why: The liberals GET the fact that we want to keep what we earn. The problem is that there are two kinds of liberals. One is the poor, who is glad to legally rob you because he cannot afford principles to guide him against it. The other is the high-minded fool, who doesn't consider it robbery because he gladly casts his share into the trough of the public sow, with a few exceptions ( John Kerry. ) Barbara Streisand is worth 100 million. By her way of thinking, if she is willing to embrace a 90% income-tax scheme, then why aren't you?!
As always, the liberal sees what he wants to see and makes rules out of exceptions. They universally portray the poor as victims of corporate-fascist society. The reality is that 90% of all Americans live in a reality of their own making. My high school valedictorian was poor ( on food stamps . ) She went on to a public university and through hard work, pell grants, student loans and one or two jobs, she worked her way to an M.B.A. and - at the time of our last class reunion - was making big bucks at some Wall Street firm. She can trace her success back to a progression of good decisions ( mostly common-sense, no luck at all ) that led her to where she is today. I came from a blue-collar family. While she was studying, I was hanging out with my "homies," drinking, smoking, working on cars, chasing girls, working a part-time job to support my live-for-today lifestyle. I was foolish. I was a teenager. Today, I can trace my lack of better success RIGHT BACK TO MY OWN DOORSTEP! I have a higher i.q. than the average M.D. but I am a blue-collar tradesman instead. Not because our country isn't "fair" enough. Not because of neo-con-conspiracies to keep the little people down. Not because of low taxes. Not because my high school was underfunded, not for lack of role models ( my parents were great, ) Not because of The Illuminati (Bush Sr., Cheney, Quayle, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, et al. ) Not because of the deficit or even global-warming. My life today is entirely -- with an average share of good luck and lousy breaks sprinkled in there -- a product of the often poor choices I made.
The other 10% who may have innocent hardships could easily be provided for through voluntary contributions to government charity or private charity. As for me, I consistently reject Demagogue party candidates, even though I might personally benefit from the bribes they would give me as a cut of their extortion racket ( Read: Income tax, ) but every time I have a rich boss who gets hit by an overhead increase like tax hikes or Workmen's Comp increases, I GET LAID OFF. Then the IRS "jacks" me on April 14th for its cut of my measly paycheck. At least GOP rule has eased the robbery substantively, whereas Clinton raised my tax debt even though I was in the bottom bracket! Today that criminal's mafia-like party has the AFFRONTERY to claim the Bush cuts only benefit the "very wealthy." Give my next rich boss a tax cut and maybe I can keep my job, you liberal vampires! Bring those Clintoon mobsters back and everyone will pay more; they'll call it "fair."
Liberals, if you care about the REAL working man, please don't vote in '08 -- For pity's sake, I HAVE CHILDREN, YOU HEARTLESS, MONEY-GRUBBING SONS OF B@#CHES!!!
p.s. Have a nice day : )

Answer 7

The problem with that analogy is this:

One person getting a higher grade through working harder doesn't reduce the grades of others or mean that there's not enough grades to go around. People also don't starve or go homeless through lack of grades (well at least not directly). People don't monopolise grades, paying others tiny amounts of course credit to do most of their work for them. Grades don't get passed down to your children meaning that they never have to work for grades of their own. Grades are also useful to have as high as possible while beyond a certain point it is possible to have more money than you can spend and certainly it's more than possible to have more money than you can spend on even vaguely necessary things. People who screw up on assignments through no fault of their own can also be allowed additional chances to improve their grades. Getting a good grade doesn't make getting another good grade easier. Further grades aren't arbritrarily decided as much of the distribution of wealth is but rather based on criteria that are open and clear - for example see how your comparison works if you use the example of a student who cheats their way through (or gets the answers phoned in for them during the exam by their parents say) and does really well when compared to a person who struggles heroicly but only just passes due to a lack of background in the subject or a learning difficulty. Your argument would seem to boil down to that rather than giving the unfortunately struggling student more help to raise his or her grades, we should instead invest heavily in changing the rules to make it easier for the student who cheats or who is naturally good but doesn't study half as hard.

One last point here is this... if you think all people on welfare are simply too lazy to find jobs, can you honestly tell me that there are jobs for everyone? Because if you look at the number of jobs available you'll find that it doesn't come close to being enough for everyone in the country to be employed. That's without even getting into the fact that many of the available jobs require various qualifications and aren't just open to everyone.

Also I thought the line "The self professed objectivity proclaimed by her professors had to be the truth and she indicated so to her father." was ironicly amusing coming from someone who has obviously wholeheartedly accepted their father's politics.

Answer 8

Nice, home grown support for ones own beliefs.
How about the Mary's that do study hard and have 4.0 GPAs but are poor. Their Daddy's work 40-62 hours per week for minimum wage and can't pay for college as the tax dollars that once provided a reasonable tuition are now back in the pockets of the super rich.
These simplistic little diddy's that the cons use to prop up their greedy life styles will not hold water when they have pushed the working man to the wall.
Remember, he who dies with the most toys is still dead.

Answer 9

Hard work and liberty for all is a distinctly AMERICAN VALUE... Look no further than the maximum 35 hour "full-time" work week promoted in other advanced European democracies. (Their standard and quality of living is generally higher as well because they are less stressed.)

Your parable is accurate and comparable to a Capitalistic vs. Communistic society, but not an American one.

Our work ethic is an AMERICAN VALUE and is not owned solely by the rights of the Republican party.

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The poster below myself brings up an excellent point: 70 years ago this family would have been one of those to achieve that elusive concept of "The American Dream"; through their hard and persevering work, they would have effectively pulled themselves up from poverty. However, society has changed dramatically since that period and that dream is harder to achieve.

Answer 10

gee, I've never heard that one before. you see.. A true liberal would donate his TIME and help them learn.. not his GPA.

Why do so many conservatives have tunnel vision?


and RLP. Democrats don't want the rich to pay a higher % than the poor or middle class.. they just think it should be a fair %...

as it stands now the rich pay less of their total earnings (a smaller %) into taxes than anyone else.. and did you know that a 3% tax on the rich (which would still leave them paying a smaller % than most people who make 30-60k a year) would fix the national debt in 5 years?

Answer 11

You have learnt your lesson.

Things of the heart and the mind are seldom the same.

Altruism has to be grounded in reality.Your father has done an excellent job of showing u that u would rather not share ur grade..so how about the bigger things in life?