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However, the one thing that really bothers me was this one:

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"They started awarding trophies to every player in school team sports, winners and losers."


I don't why folks keep throwing that up as if it is destroying the competitive fiber of our youth -- 'cause it is crock of crap.

This sound-bite is tossed about by those who don't really pay attention any more to kids in sport. Kids know who wins and loses, winning trophies are for winners and the competitive spirit is alive and well. I am not sure how recognition for participation in an activity has somehow led to the downfall of our society.




OK, logical error 101: you turned this into a straw man argument by bypassing his real observation and replying as though he were making a completely different and less valid point. This is NOT about recognition for participation, and to suggest otherwise is disingenuous.

If there has ever been a well-researched and documented topic, it is the topic of motivation. It has been so thoroughly examined by the scientific, business, academic, psychological and religious communities that I wonder if there is anything left to learn about it. When something is understood so well that applying the learned principles to animals yields highly predictable results, that tells me it is a fairly stable body of evidence.

And here is the key premise of motivation: "Behavior that is rewarded tends to be repeated"

If you reward excellence you get more excellence. If you reward mediocrity you get more mediocrity. Welfare states go one step beyond trewarding mediocrity... they reward a total absence of productivity and value adding to society. A society is the sum of its parts, and if the common denominator of a society is mediocrity (or worse, sorriness), then that society can not prosper for long.

The goals of equality and excellence are conflicting goals. The quest for equality would put EVERYBODY in the olympics... the quest for excellence rewards only those who have diligently trained and shown themselves to have superior ability

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ey71h8ep047758h/AAC12jNM0Hz9Q8zsh5iDeqNHa?dl=0