I remember seeing a poster like this back in Econ class in high school. I think it was my first taste of political satire, and I loved it. I thought about this poster again (for some whacked reason) this morning – probably due to the fact that it’s election day today. So I decided to dig up the contents of this poster and put it here for all to see.
Taken from http://www.fact-index.com/y/yo/you_have_two_cows.html
Bureaucracy: You have two cows. At first the government regulates what you can feed them and when you can milk them. After that 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 two cows. You sell one and buy a bull.
Communism: You have two cows. Your neighbours help you take care of them, and you all share the milk.
Communism — North Korean: You have two cows. The government takes you and the cows hostage, guzzles both of them and nearly starves you, and then offers the world not to nuke it if the international community provides aid.
Democracy: You have two cows. Your neighbours decide who gets the milk.
Fascism: You have two cows. The government takes both, hires you to take care of them, and sells you the milk.
Fundamentalism: You have two cows. The government kills you for owning cows, confiscates your cows, and then kills everyone who suggests that the government should be killed for owning cows.
Marxism/Leninism: The proletarian cows unite and overthrow the bourgeoisie cow-herds. The egalitarian democratic cow revolutionary state with the cow party as vanguard disintegrates over time. Marx choked on a veggie-burger before he could explain what happens to the use-value, exchange-value and sign-value of bovine leather.
Socialism: You have two cows. The government takes one of them and gives it to your neighbour.
moo! I like to talk to myself!