Monday, November 06, 2006

A pleasant dinner

Thinking of the whole racial economic problem over here, I thought this was an interesting illustration which sheds light on what we should consider before going any further with more affirmative action or even the putting of one race above any other. This is an interesting illustration commonly used to explain a certain taxation philosophy but it's equally applicable in this case.

5 friends go to a restaurant together every month. The first, Michael is rich, Alfred and John are working class men, and Tom, Dick and Harry are poor. Now, they have a great dinner and everyone enjoys themselves. Then the time comes for the bill to be paid, and it costs 100 dollars. The restaurant owner says,"Well, in this restaurant, we try to be as fair as possible, so each man will pay according to how much he is worth." Everyone is fine with that, so the Michael pays 40 dollars, Alfred and John pay 15 dollars each and the Tom, Dick and Harry pay 10 dollars each. So they say goodnight and everyone goes home.

Several months later, before their monthly dinner, Tom says to Dick and Harry "Let's invite Tony along." So Tom, Dick and Harry invite Tony. They go for dinner, and everything goes on as usual until it's time to pay the bill. The bill arrives and it is now 120 dollars. So the restaurant owner asks how they're going to divide the bill. Immediately, Tom says, well, Michael is the richest, so he will pay the most. Michael will pay 60 dollars, Alfred and John will pay 20 dollars each and me, Dick, Harry and Tony will pay 5 dollars each. Now Michael gets a little angry, but Tom, Dick and Harry are still his friends so he keeps his mouth shut.

The next month, Tom says to Dick, Harry and Tony, "You know what, Michael is so rich. Why don't we just rob him and take all his money? Then we can have a totally free dinner and we can bring two other friends along." So they wait until just before Michael is about to enter the restaurant, and they rob him and beat him up. Tom then takes his wallet and they go into the restaurant and have dinner.

Tom pays the bill, and everyone is happy. Perfect solution.

The next month comes, and then it's time to pay the bill again. Except Michael is not here. ( Who would want to come back after getting robbed and beaten up eh? ) The bill comes up to 100 dollars again. Now Tom has already spent the rest of the money in Michael's wallet so he takes out 5 dollars same as the times when Michael was here. Dick, Harry and Tony also only have 5 dollars with them. Alfred and John only have 20 dollars each. They're still short by 60 dollars. The restaurant owner then comes along, takes the 40 dollars, throws them out, and tells them never to come back again.

Replace Michael with Ah Chong and draw your own conclusions.