Communism Copiers

On average, I probably use about one ream of paper a week making copies for my classes. I need tests, worksheets, readings, and data packets made, and in a given week, it probably adds up to one ream of 500 sheets of paper. And yet, each week I put at least 10 reams of paper in the copier. When I go to make my copies, the printer is always out of paper, and so I fill it, and while I am filling it, I just fill the whole thing with paper, and that adds up to about 10 reams of paper a week. There are 32 weeks of school, so that means over a given school year I use 32 reams and put 320 reams of paper in. Assuming other teachers use the copier the same amount as me, that means that I am filling up paper for another 9 teachers who free-load off the system and never refill the copier, but instead rely on my labor for their profits. And as I contemplated this everyday experience I once again was reminded of the folly of communism.

To each according to his needs, to each according to his abilities. The more money you make, the more money you are taxed, but as an outright amount and as a percentage of your income. The more you can do for society, the more society demands of you. The more jobs and healthcare that you provide to your employees, the more jobs and healthcare that government demands you give people who are not yet your employees. Whatever your abilities, the government demands that you provide that and more, so that those people who have few abilities or lack the work ethic to employ their abilities can live off the fruits of your labor.

To each according to his needs means that everyone who needs healthcare gets it, whether they paid into the system or not. It means that the government will provide houses, cars, jobs, healthcare, education, and whatever else for you that you might think that you could need. To each according to his needs means that the limitless needs of man need to be filled by the clearly limited abilities of man, with a corrupt and politically-motivated government supervising the whole affair. This is communism in a nutshell, and is exactly what the Democratic Party and Barack Obama are fighting for today.

Next time you use the copy machine, ponder the folly's of the commons- that those goods who are used by everyone and yet lack sole ownership are the very goods that are most abused. To me, it's the copier paper, but to you, it might be the coffee machine in your office or the refrigerator. No one looks after those, or to be more correct, everyone looks after those, and you see the result. Oh, usually someone steps up and does everything, and that is the great thing about man, that there are those people who will do more and rise above the system that drags them down, but it is no cause to celebrate the system that it keeps running in spite of itself. The Democrats in Congress and your President Obama are trying to put in place a system that destroys initiative, ownership, responsibility, profit, and risk-taking. They are putting in place a system very similar to communism where you are going to be taxed (or assessed fees, like in the latest healthcare bill) at greater and greater amounts so that other people can live off your hard work and effort.