21 Economic Models
Explained
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.
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.
ROYAL BANK OF
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 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
with nine cows.
No
balance sheet provided with the release.
The public then buys your
bull.
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 ‘Cowkimon’ and market it
worldwide.
A GERMAN CORPORATION
You
have two cows.
You re-engineer them so they live for 100 years, eat once a
month, and milk
themselves.
AN
ITALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows, but you don’t know where
they are.
You decide to have lunch.
A RUSSIAN CORPORATION
You
have two cows.
You count them and learn you have five cows.
You count them
again and learn you have 42 cows. You count them again and learn you have 2
cows.
You stop counting cows and open another bottle of vodka.
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 crap 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.