Personal Responsibility trumps this...

Got an e-mail recently--thanks to friends who send e-mails--entitled "Socialism made simple." Although this does apply to socialism, I have been thinking about how it applies to our emergency preparedness mindset, and how our views on personal responsibility will affect how well any/all of us will make it through an emergency. Said e-mail, with limited editing by yours truly:


Socialism made simple

Don't know if this is true or not, but it's an interesting teaching process and a point well made.


An economics professor at Texas Tech said he had never failed a single student before but had, once, failed an entire class. That class had insisted that socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer. The professor then said ok, we will have an experiment in this class on socialism..

All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A. After the first test the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. But, as the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too; so they studied little..The second test average was a D! No one was happy. When the 3rd test rolled around the average was an F.

The scores never increased as bickering, blame, name calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.


All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great,the effort to succeed is great; but when government takes all the reward away; no one will try or want to succeed.

Could not be any simpler than that....


So, what does this have to do with emergency preparation? I worry that some people think that there will always be someone else to meet their needs in an emergency,that there are those-- like the students in the story who studied hard for the first test---will have worked hard enough on emergency preparations that they will have enough to carry everyone else through whatever emergency comes along. Even if that were true, it would only last through a first emergency, if that, just like such benefits only existed for the first test in the story. I also think, that like those hard workers in the story, those who had to carry everyone else wouldn't appreciate having to do so.

Then, there is the fact that even if someone else has the supplies that you need in an emergency, they may not be able to get them to you in a timely fashion. If you think of any of the huge disasters that have happened in recent years, you may find that relief may have come, but for many it was not immediate relief. If you have even a little to tide you over until relief comes, it may make a huge difference when you are dealing with an emergency. That's one reason why even if you can only afford a little bit at a time when it comes to emergency supplies, every little bit helps...

Um, yeah, this isn't a political blog--but I thought the connection between the ideas presented in the e-mail and ideas about emergency preparation might illustrate how important it is for each of us to get prepared individually--here's hoping. And the greatest part about it is that we still have some time to "study" and all get A's, or at least a much higher grade than an F, if we work on our preparations.....