Originally Posted by Eric5273

I agree, but as is being discussed in this thread, apparently most of society does not.

I wasn't being sarcastic when I said above that people from communist and socialist countries think that way. It is true. Education is one of the few areas that communist and socialist countries do well in. And very likely is due to this factor.

I think it is human nature to want to compete and do better than your peers. If you take away the ability to compete financially (which communism certainly does), then people will find another way to compete. In the case of communist countries, that tends to be in the areas of education, science, and even sports.