Congratulations and good luck to you and your family.
Sending this along (my email files, no author noted) as a potential starting point for discussing the facts of liberal life with your apparently quite bright daughter.
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Wealth redistribution: The grades example
My son and I were discussing taxes and wealth redistribution as part of a government class assignment.
“What is your grade in government right now?” I asked.
“B,” he said.
Okay. I imagine that there are some people getting A’s and others failing. Correct?”
“Yes.”
“Well tomorrow imagine your government teacher announcing that those students getting A’s will have two grade points deducted so that the students getting F’s and D’s can have their grades lifted to a C. The individuals getting B’s will have one grade point deducted and used for the same purpose. After all, it isn’t fair that those students getting A’s and B’s should help out students who aren’t as fortunate? Make sense?” I asked.
“No. The reason we get A’s and B’s is that we are working hard or maybe we are smarter. It isn’t our fault that some kids are getting D’s and F’s,” he answered.
“Well, you’ll still do okay. Getting a C is still passing, and you will have helped out the other students,” I argued.
“If you do that, there is no reason for me to study hard,” he reasoned. “I’ll take it easy.”
“But if you take it easy, where will we get the grade points to help those D and F students?” I asked. “We have to get the points somewhere.”
“I don’t know,” he said.
He now understands the economic effect of redistribution through taxation.
I may have mentioned that to her, but it bears repeating.
I do recall discussing Claude Frédéric Bastiat”s “broken glass theory”.
She referred to it more than once in subsequent conversations. At about the same time, I started hearing remarks like “oh, she’s such a liberal.” She still thinks I’m a neanderthal, but that’s not entirely unreasonable.
Anyway, it’s the simple illustrations, like yours and Bastiat’s, that crack the idyllic confections liberals feed our kids.
For more:
http://mises.org/daily/3000