Socialism

     "An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class. That class had insisted that Obama’s 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 Obama’s plan”. All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A (substituting grades for dollars – something closer to home and more readily understood by all).
     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.
     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 third test rolled around, the average was an F.
     As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.
     To their great surprise, all failed 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."

 http://www.thecommentator.com/article/646/does_socialism_work_a_classroom_experiment

In theory, socialism solves many problems. Everybody would work hard to contribute to society the best they could and all would share the benefits. Because everybody is equal, nobody would have to worry about affording food, housing, or medical needs. It would be a perfect world.

In practice, it is very evident that this is probably not how it would play out. If the hard work you does not benefit you, there is no reason to overachieve. Why spend years of my life studying to become a doctor if the guy next to me, a janitor, will be just as successful? There is no reason except for that warm fuzzy feeling you get when you help somebody else, and even that can be covered up pretty quickly by greed. Soon, everybody begins pointing fingers saying others aren't doing their part. The blame came starts and the state of the society begins to disintegrate.

But why does socialism in Scandinavian countries work? The people of these countries pay high taxes and are generally taken care of through a generous welfare system. Scandinavian countries have a high standard of living and a relatively low poverty rate. But is it the Scandinavian socialism that works or the Scandinavian people. Maybe they are just more willing to work for the benefit of others - different cultures and customs.
However, even these countries aren't completely socialist. There is little government interference in businesses, which some argue is the real reason for the success of these countries.

For this reason, I believe that leaning to any extreme will result in the downfall of a nation. In order to be successful a balance must be found.