The Day Welfare Hit the Classroom; S. Spetz

"Sir, what does it mean, minus six marks for the Student Pension Plan?" "Well, Bob, the Student Pension Plan is one that I invented similar to a government pension plan. You Mr. Spetz teaches Economics at Bayridge Secondary School in Kingston, Ontario. This article, prepared some years ago for a teacher's magazine in Canada, merits further distribution. put aside some of your marks each week into a fund which will be available should you decide to retire toward the end of the school year." "Do I get them back?" "Yes, but in the meantime infla tion will have eroded the marks ter ribly, so you will probably get back only a small part of what you set aside. Yes, Mary?" "Sir, what does it mean, minus four marks for Unemployed Student In surance?" "Ah, good question. Suppose you are absent or for some reason fail to hand in your assignment? Then, you are authorized to draw marks from the Unemployed Student Insurance Fund to make sure you don't suffer a drop in marks."

''But what happens to my marks if THE DAY WELFARE HIT THE CLASSROOM 303 I do all my assignments-dol get my marks back?" "Certainly not. The marks are needed by the less fortunate." "Sir . .. Fred got a 55% on his as signment and he didn't even do it!" "Yes, I know . You see how the Unemployed Insurance works? Fred didn't do anything, but we can't let him fail, so I authorized him to draw 55 marks from the Insurance Fund." "But the reason he didn't do it was he went to the hockey game. He said to ---- with your assignment and . .." "It doesn't matter. Each of us owes a duty to our neighbors to see that they encounter no hardships. It's their birthright." "Even if they don't do anything?" "Perhaps he was unable to do it." "Sir, what would happen if we all didn't do the assignment? I mean, suppose we all just asked for 55 marks, what would happen?" "Tsk, tsk, Tom. I assume that each of you wants to work, that you seek work and savor it. I know none of you would deliberately tum down the opportunity to work."

"Sir, what does it mean, minus 5 marks for Student Health Plan?" "That is in case you are ill for a prolonged period of time. The Plan will pay you 60 marks a week while you are convalescing." "Why didn't you deduct any marks from Hilda for the Student Health Plan?" "She comes from a low-income family. Can't expect her to pay any thing, can you?"! "Sir, you tooki fifteen marks from me for Student Income Tax, but you only took four frQm Ralph." "Well, you are!in a higher bracket than Ralph. You! had a mark of 86% while Ralph only had a 57%. You should pay more]than he." "Why?" "Just because it always works that way." "Sir, I had a mark of 58%. After you deducted Student Income Tax, Student Health Plan, Student Pen sion Plan, and Unemployed Student Insurance I ended up with only 39%. I passed the assignment but all your deductions mad~ me fail. I would have been better!off if I hadn't done it at all like Freet. He'fliidn't do any thing but got a higher mark than I did."

"Yes, unfortunately there are a few cases where it ooes work out like that. Some people are financially better off not \\forking than work ing." "You mean it'~ better to refuse to work rather than work and get a low passing mark?" "Yes, but aga~n I want to empha size that I know each of you would not want to tak¢ advantage of such an idea. The thrill of the job alone should drive you onward even though you end up with fewer marks. Be sides, you wouldm't feel morally right knowing you were drawing marks 304 THE FREEMAN from your fellow students when you were perfectly capable of getting them yourself." "Sir, do people really live like this?" "Certainly, it's part of the great social scheme of life." As the bell rang, I knew I had suc ceeded beyond my utmost dreams. The students were actively talking about incorporating so they could defer taxes, bringing in large num bers of immigrant students to do their assignments at a low pay scale while they collected from the Un employed Student Fund year around, ..;i; Market Pricing applying for government assistance to pay their Student Health Plan premiums because they came from low-income families, and had started a Strike Fund to keep their marks up while they were busy picketing the school for higher marks, a four day week, and a student drinking lounge.

As I watched them happily think ing of ways to obtain extra marks from the Unemployed Student In surance Fund by enrolling in the plan under more than one name, I re called the words from the musical, My Fair Lady: "By George, she's got it!" ® IDEAS ON LIBERTY IN a maI:ket economy of private ownership, the most desirable use for the land (and other means of production) can be, and is, quickly decided by the highest bidder. If the beet grower outbids the office builder, the land is used for beets. If he has miscalculated and can't at least cover his total costs by the sale of his product to willing buyers who have freedom of choice, he goes broke-and some other person who is search ing for profit-making opportunities replaces him and produces whatever product he thinks the consumers will buy. Thus the consumers, by their buying or abstention from buying, will make sure that the land is used for a purpose that pleases them.

But under total socialism, there is no price and no market for any capital good, including land. No person is free to produce what he thinks the consumers would prefer. Thus all land, all natural resources, all building nlaterials, 'and all capital of any description must be arbitrarily assigned to whatever purpose happens to please the planner. Literally, there is no other alternative in a command economy. DEAN RUSSELL, "Play Store Economics"