Examples of Capitalism at work
Examples of Capitalism at work
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rev-erend

Original Poster:

21,623 posts

314 months

Friday 11th November 2005
quotequote all
Here's a few examples :

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.

ENRON 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. 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 buys your bull.

AN AMERICAN CORPORATION
You have two cows. You sell one, and force the other to produce the milk of four cows. You are surprised when the cow drops dead.

A FRENCH CORPORATION
You have two cows. You go on strike 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 clever cow cartoon images called Cowkimon and market them World-Wide.

A GERMAN CORPORATION
You have two cows. You reengineer them so they live for 100 years, eat once a month, and milk themselves.

A BRITISH CORPORATION
You have two cows. Both are mad.

AN ITALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows, but you don't know where they are. You break for 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 12 cows. You stop counting cows and open another bottle of vodka.

A SWISS CORPORATION
You have 5000 cows, none of which belong to you. You charge others for storing them.

A HINDU CORPORATION
You have two cows. You worship them.

A CHINESE CORPORATION
You have two cows. You have 300 people milking them. You claim full employment, high bovine productivity, and arrest the newsman who reported the numbers.

A WELSH CORPORATION
You have two cows. That one on the left is kinda cute.

allnighter

6,663 posts

252 months

Friday 11th November 2005
quotequote all
.... and last but not least,

THE BENEFIT CORPORATION: You have one cow , taxpayer feeds it , the bone idle/single mums/bogus asylum seekers milk it.

alfaman

6,416 posts

264 months

Friday 11th November 2005
quotequote all
THE AFRICAN CORPORATION

You have 2 cows - you lose one , the other gets stolen.

wolves_wanderer

12,956 posts

267 months

Friday 11th November 2005
quotequote all
A ZIMBABWEAN CORPORATION
You have plenty of cows to go round but the boss keeps them all and kills them. You are given more cows, which the boss keeps - he then blames the British for the paucity of cows.

neil.b

6,546 posts

277 months

Friday 11th November 2005
quotequote all
That's so old it owes Jesus money.

Incorrigible

13,668 posts

291 months

Friday 11th November 2005
quotequote all
The nigerian cow

Helloe I am very pleased to be meeting your aquaintance I am brother to very important meat herder and have 27,000,000 cows which I will gladly share with you if you post me some milk by western unoin dairy product transfer

Your's

Derek Umbongo (Mrs)

pdV6

16,442 posts

291 months

Friday 11th November 2005
quotequote all
Incorrigible said:
The nigerian cow

Helloe I am very pleased to be meeting your aquaintance I am brother to very important meat herder and have 27,000,000 cows which I will gladly share with you if you post me some milk by western unoin dairy product transfer

Your's

Derek Umbongo (Mrs)

Class!

Twincam16

27,647 posts

288 months

Friday 11th November 2005
quotequote all
Incorrigible beat me to it...


But - THE KOREAN MODEL:

You have two old cows, one bought from England, the other from Japan. You paint them different colours and sell them back to England as new cows guaranteed to live for five years. Sit back and watch the profits roll in.

havoc

33,454 posts

265 months

Friday 11th November 2005
quotequote all
rev-erend said:
ENRON 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. 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 buys your bull.

...the market for cows collapses, leaving you with debt secured against 9 cows, when all you have left is a big pile of manure. You blame everything on your Chief Financial Officer and try and wriggle out of a long prison sentence. Meanwhile, all the milk from those cows is safely stored away in your name...