Economic and Political Theory 101 with Cows

From "Joseph M. Filakovsky"
owner of the Medical Humor Forum
med-jokes@list.pitt.edu


With Oct 1997 additions posted to med-jokes by Sue Hickman and some original additions by Bonnie Dalzell.
FEUDALISM
You have two cows. Your lord takes some of the milk.

PURE SOCIALISM
You have two cows. The government takes them and puts them in a barn with everyone else's cows. You have to take care of all the cows.
The government gives you as much milk as you need.

BUREAUCRATIC SOCIALISM
You have two cows. The government takes them and puts them in a barn with everyone else's cows. They are cared for by ex-chicken farmers.
You have to take care of the chickens the government took from the chicken farmers. The government gives you as much milk and eggs the regulations say you should need.

FASCISM
You have two cows. The government takes both, hires you to take care of them, and sells you the milk.

PURE COMMUNISM
You have two cows. Your neighbors help you take care of them, and you all share the milk.

RUSSIAN COMMUNISM
You have two cows. You have to take care of them, but the government takes all the milk.

CAMBODIAN COMMUNISM
You have two cows. The government takes both and shoots you.

DICTATORSHIP
You have two cows. The government takes both and drafts you.

TOTALITARIANISM
Your have 2 cows. The government takes them and denies they ever existed. Milk is banned.

PURE DEMOCRACY
You have two cows. Your neighbors decide who gets the milk.

REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY
You have two cows. Your neighbors pick someone through a vote to tell you who gets the milk.

SINGAPOREAN DEMOCRACY
You have 2 cows. The government fines you for illegally keeping 2 unlicensed farm animals in an apartment.

AMERICAN DEMOCRACY
The government promises to give you 2 cows if you vote for it. After the election, the president is impeached for speculating in cow futures. The press dubs the affair "Cowgate".

BRITISH DEMOCRACY
You have 2 cows. You feed them sheep's brains and they go mad. The government doesn't do anything.

BUREAUCRACY
You have two cows. At first the government regulates what you can feed them and when you can milk them. Then it pays you not to milk them. Then it takes both, shoots one, milks the other and pours the milk down the drain. Then it requires you to fill out forms accounting for the missing cows.

CAPITALISM
You have 2 cows. You sell one and buy a bull which you use to breed the other cow as well as every other cow in the area. Then you start exporting sperm from the bull to emerging markets. After several years of expansion, your company issues an IPO to be listed on the NYSE. The SEC eventually intends legal proceedings against you and your spouse for insider trading. After a lengthy court battle, you are found guilty and sentenced to 10 years in prison, of which you actually serve 7 weeks. When you come out of prison, you buy 2 chickens. Then,....

HONG KONG CAPITALISM
You have 2 cows. You sell 3 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 4 cows back, with a tax deduction for keeping 5 cows. The milk rights of 6 cows are transferred via a Panamanian intermediary to a Cayman Islands company secretly owned by the majority shareholder, who sells the rights to all 7 cows' milk back to the listed company and proceeds from the sale are deferred. The annual report says that the company owns 8 cows, with an option on one more. Meanwhile, you kill the 2 cows because the feng shui is bad.

ENVIRONMENTALISM
You have 2 cows. The government bans you from milking or killing them.

FEMINISM
You have 2 cows. They get married and adopt a veal calf.

POLITICAL CORRECTNESS

You are associated with (the concept of "ownership" is a symbol of the phallo-centric, war-mongerism, intolerant past) 2 differently aged (but no less valuable to society) bovines of unpecified gender.

COUNTER CULTURE
Wow, dig it, like there's these 2 cows, man, grazing in the hemp field. You got to have some of this milk!

BOTULISM
You have two cows. They get into spoiled grain.....

PURE ANARCHY
You have two cows. Either you sell the milk at a fair price or your neighbors try to take the cows and kill you.

LIBERTARIANISM
Whatever...

MONTANA MILITIAISM
You have two cows, they stampede over a cliff when buzzed by black helicopters.

SURREALISM
You have two giraffes. The government requires you to take harmonica lessons. The sun rises in the north on alternate Tuesdays.



The Net.Pet Home Page NetPet Magazine Table of Contents
Index to the NetPet Site

Support the NetPet Site!