Idiocy

Let’s say you are the President of your class.

There are 20 people in your class. They all earn some money from
cutting grass, washing cars, etc. They all contribute half of their
earnings to a common class fund.

You all want to use the class fund for a graduation party, for
decorating your classroom, for buying some computer games that everyone
in the class can use. You also want to use the class fund to buy some
basketballs and maybe a shotgun or two, for "defense".

But then some of your classmates don’t work, or are too lazy to
work. They can’t contribute to the class fund any more. Some of them
don’t even have lunch money. You have to get some money from the class
fund to buy them their lunch, every day, because as President you are
responsible for their well-being.

But this uses up the class fund. And you know what, sometimes you
sneak some money out of the class fund to buy beer for you and your
friends.

On top of this, your lazy classmates keep bringing their dogs and cats to school.  You have to feed those, too.

Now the class fund is depleted. Some of your classmates are still
contributing, but many are getting away with no contributions. They
don’t see any point in paying for lunch for lazy classmates, or beer
for the Class President and his friends.

Now the class fund is no longer being replenished. So you go to the
next classroom, talk to the President there, and borrow some money. He
lends you $100. You then go back to your class and buy people some more
lunch. And you also buy a beer for yourself.

Soon even the $100 is used up. The classroom has not been
decorated. You have not had a party. You never did buy those
basketballs and computer games. And forget all about buying that
shotgun.

You have to borrow some more money from the next class.  But you have not paid your first debt.  So now they refuse.

Then some of your classmates get disillusioned with your class, and
they transfer to other classes. Those who work hard and are intelligent
are accepted into the other classes. Those who are ignorant and lazy
are left in your class.

What now?

It’s pretty simple. Gross Domestic Product, or GDP, is the sum
total of all your classmates earnings from their jobs and chores.

The Budget is the class fund. You are using up your budget for feeding
people who can’t or won’t feed themselves, and for feeding dogs and
cats who don’t contribute anything to the class, and for a bit of beer
(corruption) on the side.

You wanted to buy some computer games that you could have rented out to
other classes (exports), to earn more money (increase the class GDP).
But that never got off the ground.

You wanted some shiny shotguns for your "defense" (Air Force), but you are totally broke.

Now your classmates are pissed at you for mismanaging the entire
thing. The class chairs are broken, the airconditioning doesn’t work,
everybody who used to work hard has left.

Only the idiots, the ignorant and the lazy remain.

Then they decide to beat you up and throw you out of their class,
so that they can elect a new President. Then the new President buys
more beer with what is left of the class fund. The cycle continues.

The GDP of the Philippines is growing 4%.  Every year, the population who work earns 4% more money than the last year.

But the population (the cats and dogs you have to feed) grows by
2.5% every year. You need to feed all of them from the GDP — because
the GDP is all the money a country will ever get.

And the cost of school lunch is going up 5% a year.  The price of lunch for your classmates is 5% more expensive than last year.

So, your income is growing 4%. But your population is growing 2.5%,
and inflation is 5%. The growth in income is not enough to feed the
additional cats and dogs, and to pay for the more expensive lunch food
every year.

You are in a downward spiral.

Do you see the problem?  Do you see the solutions?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 4th, 2005 at 10:30 pm and is filed under Activistic Tendencies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.