Return of the Socialist

Notes for this entry were lost.

          Budgeting & Taxation held an interesting exercise on the topic of government assistance. Professor Jimenez outlined the following scenario:

Daryl has $4.
Rick has $3.

You have $2.

Maggie has $1.

You can choose to give a separate $2 to anyone except yourself. Who do you give it to?

          Between Daryl, Rick and Maggie, the votes were split 2/3/13. I cast mine for Rick, reasoning that giving the money to Maggie would leave me at the bottom of the food chain. The other Rick supporters agreed with me, while the two who went for Daryl were banking on his future charity. This scenario is a small-scale illustration of the problem that many middle-class people have with redistribution programs -- the subconscious idea that prosperity is a zero-sum game.
          We hosted a well-attended art day at our place. By the end, we had a pile of new material for me to curate on the apartment walls. Alaric and I experimented with an Electric Watermelon for Becky, which was moderately successful; the rest of the night was the typical sequence of drinking, smoking and chilling out. (Not that I disapprove.)

          Quotes of the day:
"If you're congested, decongest with Alka-Seltzer!" - Elizabeth
"Andrew, surprising! The socialist." - Prof. Jimenez (apparently I'm a socialist)
"Knowing that Bill Gates exists doesn't make me want to kill myself." - another guy in B&T