As anecdotal evidence, my son works for a restaurant. When he was hired as an assistant server the rule of the business was everyone shares tips. Servers got a higher percentage, but all tips went into the big pool and were then divided out by management. My son hustles and works hard. Everyone in the restaurant does. It’s a fun place to visit because it is obvious the staff enjoys the work.

The rules changed. Management said only servers get the tips and they could share it with the assistants as they saw fit. The thinking of the management, for some reason, was the assistants would do as good or better. Lo and behold… they didn’t. My son, who still hustles, is making less. The servers are keeping far more to themselves. This in a restaurant where the staff would probably tend to the more “socialist” side of politics anyway.

Socialism as a system is interesting. Many claim Jesus was a Socialist. I find that interesting. Socialism works two ways. One, if all hearts are redeemed in some way and everyone agrees, it can. Otherwise, it has to be forced. But in the context of my son’s workplace, socialism works in theory but not in practice. Everyone liked the sound of sharing things more equitably… until the have’s got a little more share of the pie and found out they liked it.