Something for Nothing; M. Schinnerer

1. Yau can't get something for nothing. Too many think they can. That is the basis of gambling and most speculation. Giving a higher mark in school than is [ 121] earned is proving that the student can get something for nothing. That is bad business. When parents urge no homework, they somehow expect something for nothing. One gets out of school work about what he puts into it. Only parasites get something for nothing. 2. You can 1 t spend more than you have and remain solvent. The longer such a system is followed, the more impossible it becomes to keep afloat. Know anyone who trades in a mortgaged car on a new one and has both a newer car and a bigger mortgage? The woods are full of such people. It is bad economics. Ies somewhat like drug addiction. This· applies equally to a person, a business, or a government. 3. Youcannot equalize ability by a handicap system. It is wrong to expect as much from a youngster with a low 1. Q. as is expected from a youngster with a high I. Q. It is also wrong to set up handicaps so that they come out even. Leave that for the exclusive use of the racing stewards. Competition still has a place in Amer ica, thank goodness, and I don't want it any other way.

In every school day, there are numerous incidents in each student's school ~xperience when these three funda mentals are present. Just repeatedly bringing them to the pupil's consciousness will work wonders. If all our people accepted these three economic axioms and lived by them, we would live in an economic paradise. [122 ] INEQUALITY OF WEALTH AND INCOMES THE MARKET economy-capitalism-is based on private ownership of the material means of production and pri vate entrepreneurship. The consumers by their buying or abstention from buying ultimately determine what should be produced and in what quantity and quality. They render profitable the affairs of those businessmen who best comply with their wishes and unprofitable the affairs of those who do not produce what they are asking for most urgently. Profits convey control of the factors of production into the hands of those who are employing them for the best possible satisfaction of the most urgent needs of the consumers, and losses withdraw them from the control of the inefficient businessmen. In a market economy not sabotaged by the government the owners of property are mandatories of the consumers as it were.