A cow based economy

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*A Cow based Economics Lesson; SOCIALISM You have 2 cows. You give one to your neighbor. COMMUNISM You have 2 cows. The State takes both and gives you some milk. FASCISM You have 2 cows. The State takes both and sells you some milk. NAZISM You have 2 cows. The State takes both and shoots you. BUREAUCRATISM You have 2 cows. The State takes both, shoots one, milks the other, and then throws the milk away. TRADITIONAL CAPITALISM You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull. Your herd multiplies, and the economy grows. You sell them and retire on the income. ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND (VENTURE) CAPITALISM You have two cows. You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of credit opened by your brother-in-law at the bank, then execute a debt/equity swap with an associated general offer so that you get all four cows back, with a tax exemption for five cows. The milk rights of the six cows are transferred via an intermediary to a Cayman Island Company secretly owned by the majority shareholder who sells the rights to all seven cows back to your listed company. The annual report says the company owns eight cows, with an option on one more. You sell one cow to buy a new president of the United States , leaving you with nine cows. No balance sheet provided with the release. The public then buys your bull. SURREALISM You have two giraffes. The government requires you to take harmonica lessons. AN AMERICAN CORPORATION You have two cows. You sell one, and force the other to produce the milk of four cows. Later, you hire a consultant to analyze why the cow has dropped dead. A FRENCH CORPORATION You have two cows. You go on strike, organize a riot, and block the roads, because you want three cows. A JAPANESE CORPORATION You have two cows. You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk. You then create a clever cow cartoon image called a Cowkimona and market it worldwide. AN ITALIAN CORPORATION You have two cows, but you don't know where they are. You decide to have lunch. A SWISS CORPORATION You have 5000 cows. None of them belong to you. You charge the owners for storing them. A CHINESE CORPORATION You have two cows. You have 300 people milking them. You claim that you have full employment, and high bovine productivity. You arrest the newsman who reported the real situation. AN INDIAN CORPORATION You have two cows. You worship them. A BRITISH CORPORATION You have two cows. Both are mad. AN IRAQI CORPORATION Everyone thinks you have lots of cows. You tell them that you have none. No-one believes you, so they bomb the ** out of you and invade your country. You still have no cows, but at least you are now a Democracy. AN AUSTRALIAN CORPORATION You have two cows. Business seems pretty good. You close the office and go for a few beers to celebrate. A NEW ZEALAND CORPORATION You have two cows. The one on the left looks very attractive.
 
Could also add... you have two cows, and margin lend against them such that you now have 20 on the books. Lending against those "assets" results in even more paper cows on the books. Your two real cows, having been denied food and water, as they were only a fraction of the herd, and the upkeep had been outsourced to India (they are pretty good with cows, they worship them)..and they are cheap. Your best friend, knowing that the first two cows died, takes a short position on your farm. Having an indeterminately huge number of cows, vital to the economy, you are declared "too big to fail", and get bailed out for all the missing cows that while on your books as cows, can't be found today, tomorrow, and probably the day after that. The paper cows magically appear just before they catch fire, and you claim insurance on them.
 
Originally Posted By: spasm3
Change the socialism to; You have 2 cows, the state takes one away from you and gives it to your neighbor.
Socialism should read: You have 2 cows. The state takes half of each of your cows from you and gives them to your neighbor. You and your neighbor now have 2 dead cows. Makes me think of Mark Twain "I wish I owned half that dog!" wink
 
Time Share Cow: You pay 1/4 the cost of a whole cow and can have the cow for 7 days a year, or trade your 7 days for another cow at another location. You are still responsible for the cost of keeping the cow and the profit to do so, or will be threatened with lawsuits.
 
Originally Posted By: cchase
Originally Posted By: spasm3
Change the socialism to; You have 2 cows, the state takes one away from you and gives it to your neighbor.
Socialism should read: You have 2 cows. The state takes half of each of your cows from you and gives them to your neighbor. You and your neighbor now have 2 dead cows. Makes me think of Mark Twain "I wish I owned half that dog!" wink
That's Communism, and more like this: Your cows' milk and your neighbors' are evenly distributed regardless of volume. So you do not milk your cows, and neither do your neighbors. You two both have no milk.
 
Originally Posted By: PandaBear
Originally Posted By: cchase
Originally Posted By: spasm3
Change the socialism to; You have 2 cows, the state takes one away from you and gives it to your neighbor.
Socialism should read: You have 2 cows. The state takes half of each of your cows from you and gives them to your neighbor. You and your neighbor now have 2 dead cows. Makes me think of Mark Twain "I wish I owned half that dog!" wink
That's Communism, and more like this: Your cows' milk and your neighbors' are evenly distributed regardless of volume. So you do not milk your cows, and neither do your neighbors. You two both have no milk.
Or, you milk your cows, your neighbor does not. Half of your milk still goes to your neighbor. Either way, it's an amusing joke.
 
Originally Posted By: PandaBear
Time Share Cow: You pay 1/4 the cost of a whole cow and can have the cow for 7 days a year, or trade your 7 days for another cow at another location. You are still responsible for the cost of keeping the cow and the profit to do so, or will be threatened with lawsuits.
Time share cow: You don't necessarily need a cow, but the prospect of getting free tickets to Disney Land leads to a 5 hour presentation in which you walk out with an oxtail, even though you paid for the entire cow, and you never received tickets to Disney Land.
 
Originally Posted By: Shannow
you have two cows, and margin lend against them such that you now have 20 on the books. Lending against those "assets" results in even more paper cows on the books.
We had the real version of this not long ago. Some guy had a dairy farm, and the bank said with that much collateral you can buy another farm,so he did. Now he had 2 farms worth XX, so they let him buy 6 more - in the end he had over 50 dairy farms. Of course the house of cards collapsed in 2009 when all the pretend money in the world disappeared. The receivers are trying to off load the farms, and now there is no fake money to buy them....and the Chinese want in....
 
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