Given all this, it might be curious that my students did so poorly with the question. More surprising perhaps is that among the students who answered the question correctly, two were from other countries, the former Yugoslavia and China. It is interesting that these two young women who have firsthand knowledge of government control over the entire economy were able to discern the falsity of the statement I presented, while those reared in some of the best circumstances the United States has to offer could not. As I pondered this, I came to a few conclusions. First, there is a real problem in education today.
Students seem unwilling to accept a position purely on the basis of rational argument.
My knowledge of political economy and the evidence I provided in class were not enough to persuade my students that human nature does not change because the government takes over something. At least half were apparently unwilling to relinquish their socialistic views despite the facts and arguments I had presented. The second conclusion is that the government's socialized educational system has done an excellent job of propagandizing students into accepting socialistic dogma. Throughout the classroom presentations there was little debate and almost no discussion that might have allowed us to dispense with the myths of socialism. Yet it would appear that for the students none was necessary, for they felt no need to actually think about the issues themselves.