I think this has already made the rounds; perhaps my friends are behind the curve.  It may just be the result of increased political tension in an election year.  Several of my friends have posted this picture:

<a href="http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Ecomomics-guy.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-4689" src="http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Ecomomics-guy-300x201.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="201" /></a>

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accompanied by the following text (it's long, but worth the read; all typos are original to the text):
<blockquote>An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class. That class had insisted that Obama's socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.  The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama's plan". All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A.... (substituting grades for dollars—something closer to home and more readily understood by all).  After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.  The second test average was a D! No one was happy. When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F. As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else. To their great surprise, ALL FAILED and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed. It could not be any simpler than that.  Remember, there IS a test coming up. The 2012 elections.

These are possibly the 5 best sentences you'll ever read and all applicable to this experiment:
1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.
2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.
3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.
4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!
5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.</blockquote>
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<div>What surprises me most about the fable is seeing it posted by Christians.  I think sometimes people forward things without reading them carefully.  There is far to much wrong with this to address it all.  So I'm going to zero in on "best sentence" number four, <strong>"You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it."</strong>I was unaware that our chief monetary goal was to <em>multiply</em> our wealth.  I always had the distinct impression, in fact, that we were to do just the opposite.  Time and again, Jesus tells us that part of being good stewards is to share our financial blessings: The rich man and Lazarus; the sheep and the goats; the rich young ruler.  Even the miracles of feeding the crowds invite us into the heart of giving.  Not once does Jesus instruct us to gain earthly wealth and possessions, nor enjoy our own prosperity.  Instead, we are urged to share with those in need.<strong></strong>

This misguided modern-day parable is math-backwards.  It ought to read, <strong>"You cannot divide wealth by multiplying it."</strong>  Let's find out what <em>we</em> can do with a couple of fish and a few loaves of bread.<strong>
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