College Student Mentality
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 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 professor 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 either because she spent all her time studying.
Her father listened, 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 father asked her, “Why don’t you go to the Dean’s office and ask him to deduct a 1.0 off your GPA and give it to your friend Audrey, 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. And she’s done next to nothing toward her degree. She played while I worked my tail off!”
The father slowly smiled and said gently, “Welcome to the Republican Party.”
2 comments:
I agree, I don't want to give up my GPA to anyone. But let's not make an unfair charicature of the alternative position now.
Audrey is not very smart. Maingirl is smart. Let's measure Audrey on a different scale.
At the top of Maingirl's scale, is the CEO of a multi-national corp. At the top of Audrey's scale is managing the local petsmart.
So a 2.0 for Audrey is just as good as a 4.0 for Maingirl in some ways because she's not aspiring as high as Maingirl. Which is fine, not everyone has the ambition to earn an MBA from an Ivy.
The democrats aren't saying, let's fire Bill Gates and have him manage a petsmart because Audrey, who's working at McDonalds wants to work at Microsoft.
They're saying, Bill Gates has $9213810293532224315678 dollars, let's take 203498 and give $45 to Audrey because that's the difference between what she earns and her rent, and let's give $96 to Sally because she's trying to get off welfare, and let's spend $2000 on little Bobby's kidney transplant.
Bill Gates is left with $4383826998584 and his job as CEO of Microsoft. Audrey isn't rich because of this "redistribution" and she's not even doing well. She still needs to get her shit together and make better decisions especially if she wants the manager's job. but you know, she can eat.
Not to mention when Maingirl gets cancer, and discovers her insurance for her mid-level management job maxes out at $1m and she goes through that and ends up broke AND can't work because of chemo, she'll have a system there to save her life and help her suffer less for a few months after she enters remission before she can work again.
I respect your position, it'sjust just something to think about.
I think the story is fantastic in that it just causes us college kids to put things into terms close to home instead of thinking we know all about how the real world works.
Personally, I'm not willing to give up even .1 of my gpa because it's more than a number... it could make a difference in opportunities for me and my children...
Post a Comment