Saturday, June 6, 2009

"isms"

People sometimes wonder how to express the main differences between various social systems so that they can be quickly understood. This can be done, succinctly and quickly, by imagining that you have two cows and then seeing what happens to these cows under various "isms":


  • Under Socialism, you keep one cow and give the other to your neighbor.

  • Under Communism, the State takes your two cows but gives you the milk.

  • Under Fascism, (the Italian type), the State takes your two cows and sells you the milk.

  • Under Nazism, the State takes your two cows and sends you to a concentration camp (and possibly allows you to milk your cow too).

  • Under New Dealism, the State buys you two cows, kills one, milks the other, and throws the milk away.

  • Under Capitalism, (in it's ideal form) you keep one cow, sell the other, and buy yourself a bull.