Dr. George Grant provided the economic lesson below on his blog. Enjoy!
Economics, commonly known as the "dismal science," can actually be easily understood. Here are each of the basic economic philosophies explained in simple "two-cow" terms (first articulated years ago during a delightful dinner in Washington DC with Murray Rothbard):
Communalism: You have two cows. You keep one and give one to your neighbor.
Communism: You have two cows. The government takes them both and--from time to time--provides you with sour milk.
Fascism: You have two cows. The government takes them and sells you the milk.
Liberalism: You have two cows. The government takes them both, shoots one, milks the other, pays you for the milk, and then pours it down the drain.
Socialism: You have two cows. The government taxes you to the point that you must sell them both in order to support a man in a foreign country who has only one cow which was a gift from your government.
Free-Market Capitalism: You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull.Centralized, Multi-National-Corporation-Based, Government-Subsidized,
Democratic Socialism: You have two cows. You sell one, force the other to produce the milk of four cows and when it dies you write off the depreciation, hire a lobbyist, and garner a government bail-out and tax-breaks in order to purchase two new cows. Repeat.
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