“You have two cows” is a form of political satire in which the fate of cows is used to demonstrate a selected feature of a political or economic system.
It’s a simple, pithy way to explain complex ideas, and now, brought to life with these illustrations. But how accurate are they? You decide.
Source: Idealist Revolution
The satire holds the starting possession constant and changes what an imagined authority, market or neighbour does with it. That is an economical way to expose the feature a joke wants to criticize. It also reveals the author’s selection: another writer could choose a different action under the same label. Comparing two versions therefore opens a discussion about the assumptions behind the joke, alongside the political or economic idea it invokes.The repeated cows make each change easy to compare
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The fixed starting point makes the change stand out
Each version begins with the same small possession and changes what happens to it. That repeated setup makes contrasting ideas easy to compare, which is why the format travels so readily as satire.
Its simplicity also removes much of what an actual economic system contains. Institutions, incentives and differences within a country cannot be settled by the fate of two imaginary animals. Read each panel as a joke about a selected feature, then ask what the analogy leaves out. The result can be an enjoyable starting point for a discussion without claiming to replace a textbook or describe every person living under a label.
Explore a related story: Boss or Leader? Seven Illustrations About Workplace Behaviour.
You got Socialism totally wrong. The Government buys the cow, sells the milk to you for the cost of production and administration, without giving away profits to a capitalist.
ReplyDeleteThink about it. The US Highway System, The University System, The Post Office and the Military are all socialist institutions. How does your analogy apply?
LOVE the "definition" of Capitalism...You got Socialism COMPLETELY WRONG (you are actually describing CHARITY)...>>>In Socialism, the government deems you only need one cow, then they take your other cow and they give it to someone else (who did not work to earn the cow like you did)....not quite the altruistic model people think it is...😉
ReplyDelete100 likes. Hit the nail on the head.
DeleteYup! Susanne Miller got it right.
DeleteSocialism is more like the state determines who has an excessive amount of necessary resources and who has less resources than they need to survive, and balances it out. In a true socialist model, not everything would be equal, but everybody would be above the line of poverty.
DeleteYougoslavian corporation through history : before WW2 you had two cows, during the war you participate in Titos partisan ( comunist ) guerrilla to fight against nazi german ocupators and their fellow Croatian fascist, after the war comunists nationalized bought of your cows, and you wait about 45 years to Croat nationalists to rise again becouuse they promise that they will give back all the nationalised property's to their original owners, you vote them they win the elections go to war for independence with the rest of Yugoslavia and win the war, but to finance the war instead of giving your cows back to you they sold them to a enterpreneur now you are old and tired and dead in few years ( that's happened to my grand mothers brothers with a boat they used to own )
ReplyDeletePakistani Corporation:
ReplyDeleteYou have two cows. One of them dies because of your neglect. You cut both of the cows sold the dead cow's meat in the market and cooked the good cow for the party. You invited all of your buddies to have a curry party. Next day you lied to your employees and the government that both of your Cows died. You ask your employees to donate some some money for the sake of God to buy two more cows to keep everyone employed. You take that money and fire all of employees and move the money to a Swiss account. 10 years later you come back to the country and open a new company with a different name.
Russian Corporation:
ReplyDeleteYou have two cows. You forced them under a gun to produce vodka not milk. And angrily when that did not happen you shoot one right in the head and the other you send to Siberia. After that you are perfectly convinced that you don't need a cow but a TANK!
the greek corporation.
ReplyDeleteyou have 1 cow and all its ok. but in ww2 nazis kill your father, your son and your cow. you try hard and buy 2 cows when the germany colapse you forget the crimes and give 1 cow to them,
france and other countries want you to go better so they borrow 2 broken cows that they don't work and they ask from milk that you never saw even they take every milk you produce from your fisrt cow, then they make you kill the broken cows pay for them and re-borrow you 2 more broken cows in co op with local corrupt goverments, they keep asking for milk that you never saw , protecting corrupted members of the goverments and you try fighting