An excellent example! Thank you. Socialism is such a self-fulfilling prophecy that one does not need to be a prophet to predict the next stupidity.

How about an example?
Australia is an island, a very very big island about the size of the 48 contiguous US states with coast line as every border.
The population of Australia is about 22 million, or about 1/16th that of the USA.
As a result Australia has beaches galore per capita compared to the US.
On a major holiday, you can go to the beach and have a choice of mingling with others without any crowding or just as easily walk for miles on a near empty gorgeous beach not far from your home.
However, to protect the swimmers, Australia's beaches have very narrow (~200 meters wide) strips of sand and water with flags on each end that are patrolled by life guards, and you will be fined if you swim outside the flagged areas.
Olympic champion swimmer, are you? Sorry, pal, you get fined unless you swim where they say you can swim... in the crowd with all those other people in your way.

Just for the fun of it, I looked up the homicide rate in jails (agree, the perfect socialist environment): http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/shspl... It is about 4+ per 100K. Overall US homicide rate is 4.7 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cou...). If you add "accidents" in jail, the real homicide rate would be a bit higher. So much for the socialist Utopia!

Yes, I am stating that there is a risk of drowning. Everyone is to gauge that risk by themselves. However, the risk of drowning in a socialist system is perhaps the same, or maybe even more. Since one does not need to rely on his own skills, but entrusts himself to the State, the responsibility has been shifted, but what evidence is there that the State, comprised of people who are much less interested in your survival than you would be, would be better at protecting you than you would yourself? Expanding the topic, I would point to the Second Amendment issue - an armed citizen is much more likely to protect himself than the State can. Likewise, a person choosing his own medical care will be better served than in a VA hospital. Perhaps it could be made into a challenge - is there an area where government is better than relying on free markets? If there is such an area (I'm not aware of), the huge preponderance of free market benefits and socialist stupidity should become apparent even to a child.

the narrative should admit aloud that the "socialist" system might be safer. In the free system, many good smart people will make a mistake and die. If our goal is to be perfectly safe, we should consider making our society into a huge jail. Freedom is not free.

I would you think that this could be a fun assignment that can drive home the message. Have the kids come up with any scenarios and then have their opposing partner take it apart! This would get them involved and demonstrate something that most adults nowadays don't seem to grasp.

Fun, ill use it in my Econ and AP Econ classes this next school year.

True Stuff,
iSank