@Kolyo,
"..The analogy tries to draw a false equivalence between grades and money, which is nonsense. ..".
Perhaps in 'your' opinion. We all have 'one'.......along with other things.
In 'my' opinion, I say the denial any analogyt is 'nonsense', as 'grades' and 'money' are BOTH forms of reward. And in doing so, I will compare, with knowledge, one of the closest workplace environments that we in the U.S. have to socialism: 'Unions'.
I never worked for GM or Ford, but grew up in their heyday in a city built around them. It was common knowledge that you could excel, or you could be a goof off, it didn't matter, and over the years, eventually, no one would do more than the 'minimum' to get by. In fact, it was common for ambitious 'new hires' to be pulled aside by fellow workers and told to 'tone it down', as they didn't want to be 'shown up'.
Thus the 'Laxidasical' attitude became SOP. This appeared to work fine as long as the auto makers and their workers had a corner on the market, and could hold the consumer hostage to their routine demands for more and more.
But gee whiz, something began to happen in the 80's, we started to see cars that weren't built like junk.....at better prices......by a non union (socialist) work force.
And many would say Detroit and Flint have become two of the country's 'armpits' because of it......lack of ambition, and lack of incentive, created by the workplace equivalent of socialism, the unions. And both cities had been run for decades, by unions and democrats.
Nonsense? Tell me what you base that conclusion on......perhaps a book you read, or that the grass just always looks greener on the other side?
