Father - Daughter talk

Father - Daughter Talk

A young woman was about to finish her first year of college. Like so many others her age, she considered
herself to be a very liberal Democrat, and among other liberal ideals, was very much in favor of higher taxes to support more government programs; in other words,
redistribution of wealth.

She was deeply ashamed that her father was a rather staunch Republican, a feeling she openly expressed. Based on the lectures that she had participated in, and the occasional chat with a professor, she felt that her father had for years harbored an evil, selfish desire to keep what he thought should be his.

One day, she was challenging her father on his opposition to higher taxes on the rich, and the need for more government programs. The self-professed objectivity proclaimed by her professor had to be the
truth, and she indicated so to her father. He responded by asking how she was doing in school.

Taken aback, she answered rather haughtily that she had a 4.0 GPA, and let him know that it was tough to
maintain, insisting that she was taking a very difficult course load and was constantly studying, which left her no time to go out and party like other
people she knew. She didn't even have time for a boyfriend, and didn't really have many college friends either because she spent all her time studying.

Her father listened, then asked, "How is your friend Audrey doing?" She replied, "Audrey is barely getting
by. All she takes are easy classes, she never studies, and she barely has a 2.0 GPA. She is so popular on campus; college for her is a blast. She's always
invited to all the parties, and lots of times she doesn't even show up for classes because she's too hung over."

Her father asked her, "Why don't you go to the Dean's office and ask him to deduct a 1.0 off your GPA and give it to your friend Audrey, who only has a 2.0?
That way you will both have a 3.0 GPA, and certainly that would be a fair and equal distribution of GPA."

The daughter, visibly shocked by her father's suggestion, angrily fired back, "That's a crazy idea! How would that be fair? I've worked really hard for my grades! I've invested a lot of time, and a lot of hard
work. And she's done next to nothing toward her degree. She played while I worked my tail off!"

The father slowly smiled and said gently, "Welcome to the Republican Party."

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Locke's picture
Submitted by Locke on Thu, 02/14/2008 - 4:47pm.

To make her a real republican, daddy would not have been paying for her college and neither would she. They would have to come up with a plan so that her children paid for her education and the interest on the loans she took out. She could also advise her friend Audrey to turn republican. Audrey could strike back at the cruel school administrators by invading a supermarket across town. Or she could kidnap her professor and waterboard him for better grades. Meanwhile, if daddy had been the dean, the college would have grown by 30% while she was there, the endowment would have been spent, a huge debt would have accrued, the assistant dean would be hiding in an undisclosed location, the science department would be run by creationists, the international relations department would have been closed and cameras would monitor all the students in the dormitories.
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It is one thing to show a man that he is in an error, and another to put him in possession of the truth. John Locke


JeffC's picture
Submitted by JeffC on Thu, 02/14/2008 - 5:24pm.

The schools e-mail system would not save copies of messages, all the transcripts would have been lost, the kids couldn’t access the internets because the tubes were down (or full of commercial trucks) and the dean of the law school would be refusing to respond to queries from the Board of Education.


ImJustSaying's picture
Submitted by ImJustSaying on Thu, 02/14/2008 - 3:45pm.

Do you mind if I plagerize your intellectual property and apply that same logic on my Ga State Univ lass?
Great post!!


TinCan's picture
Submitted by TinCan on Thu, 02/14/2008 - 4:06pm.

Don't worry about plagiarizing, it’s already been done above. This went around my e-mail circles a year ago. I do, however, still agree with the lesson.


Submitted by sageadvice on Thu, 02/14/2008 - 3:39pm.

Sounds as if both these kids are very fortunate to be able to go to college at all!
I really can't comment upon what the Father said since I don't know which programs the daughter wanted taxes to pay?
Would it have been the war, maybe?
Would it have been on the national debt, maybe?
Might it have been more charity hospitals? Hard to work and pay for one of those!
What do you mean by "hard work? Is it digging ditches, maybe? Is it driving a beer truck and filling beer coolers, maybe?
Possibly the hard work is to sit a a console on Wall Street and punch buttons and talk people out of their money for bad investments?
Or maybe hard work is being a local banker, gathering up 120% loans from working people for the big guys---getting paid well to do it?
Could be a developer who got his money from "daddy" and has friends in town council and the banks?
What do you call hard working? Getting through college? Making lots of money?
Maybe even cooking and cleaning for you!

Submitted by thebeaver on Thu, 02/14/2008 - 4:25pm.

Typical Liberal tactic you are using by trying to obfuscate the meaning of the story.

The government programs I had in mind are Welfare, Prescription Drugs, PBS, NPR, or any tax dollars that go to people too lazy to work or better themselves. In fact, the one war that we should stop supporting is the war on poverty. Our tax dollars have been used to support the "poor" (read: lazy) for years and years, and yet there are still poor people everywhere. The war on poverty has obviously been lost a long time ago, so why are we still funding it?

I didn't mention hard work in my post, but since you brought it up, I consider hard work as:

Finishing High School and getting a diploma. Staying out of trouble by not giving in to the thug-rap mentality. Going to college if that suits you and graduating in 4-6 years with a degree while working a part time job.

After graduating, going out and proving your value in the free marketplace of ideas by working hard at what ever vocation you choose. A person doesn't have to make lots and lots of money in their profession, just enough to support themselves and their family and not having to suck from the gubberment teet.

“...the term “democrat” originated as an epithet and referred to ‘one who panders to the crude and mindless whims of the masses.’”

Submitted by sageadvice on Thu, 02/14/2008 - 7:26pm.

I think you are a better obfuscater than I!

In the first place, one student giving part of their grade to another is impossible. Lot of obfuscation there! It is not impossible to share!

What happens is, if the student's daddy buys the college a library wing, then the 2.0 is automatically raised to 3.0! Like Bush did!

hutch866's picture
Submitted by hutch866 on Thu, 02/14/2008 - 7:38pm.

For Pete's sake $nagedollarSnit1, it's an analogy, we know you can't do that for real, if you're that dumb you must wear loafers, because you're to dumb to tie laces.

I yam what I yam....Popeye


yardman5508's picture
Submitted by yardman5508 on Thu, 02/14/2008 - 4:42pm.

"the poor you have with you always"...does that mean they have ALWAYS been "lazy" {by your definition}? And what would you do to make them "un-poor"? Keep the faith.

Democracy is not a spectator sport.


Submitted by wildcat on Thu, 02/14/2008 - 5:43pm.

I had a professor that said, "the slow-learners you have with you always" and I would suspect they make up a large proportion of the poor. To make them un-poor....teach them a skill and pay them enough to support themselves.

Mike King's picture
Submitted by Mike King on Thu, 02/14/2008 - 12:25pm.

Beaver, seems a number of us have had similar conversations with our kids.

When they leave the academic world and support themselves is when they truly learn this lesson.

Again, great post.


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