Now I get it

[pwd72s]

Once upon a time a man appeared in a village and announced to the villagers that he would buy donkeys for $10 each. The villagers, seeing that there were many donkeys around, went out and started catching them.

The man bought thousands at $10 and, as supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their effort. He next announced that he would now buy donkeys at $20 each. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching donkeys again.

Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms. The offer increased to $25 each and the supply of donkeys became so scarce it was an effort to even find a donkey, let alone catch it! The man now announced that he would buy donkeys at $50 each! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would buy on his behalf.

In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers: "Look at all these donkeys in the big cage that the man has already collected. I will sell them to you at $35 and when the man returns from the city, you can sell them to him for $50 each."

The villagers rounded up all their savings and bought all the donkeys for 700 billion dollars. They never saw the man or his assistant again, only lots and lots of asses!

Now you have a better understanding of how the WALL STREET BAILOUT PLAN WILL WORK!!!!

[sammyg2]

I suppose it has nothing to do with the asses who borrowed all the money to buy the mules and then didn't pay the loans back.

[masraum]

Hahahah, ROFLMAO.

Yeah, I'm curious to see how this all comes out 5-10 years down the road.

[911Rob]

Might as well tag this email I got yesterday here.... enjoy

Subject: A Modern Parable


A Modern Parable.
>
> A Japanese company ( Toyota ) and an American company
> (Ford Motors) decided to have a canoe race on the Missouri
> River Both teams practiced long and hard to reach their
> peak performance before the race.
>
> On the big day, the Japanese won by a mile.
>
> The Americans, very discouraged and depressed, decided to
> investigate the reason for the crushing defeat. A
> management team made up of senior management was formed to
> investigate and recommend appropriate action.
>
> Their conclusion was the Japanese had 8 people rowing and 1
> person steering, while the American team had 7 people
> steering and 2 people rowing.
>
> Feeling a deeper study was in order; American management
> hired a consulting company and paid them a large amount of
> money for a second opinion.
>
> They advised, of course, that too many people were steering
> the boat, while not enough people were rowing.
>
> Not sure of how to utilize that information, but wanting
> to prevent another loss to the Japanese, the rowing
> team's management structure was totally reorganized to
> 4 steering supervisors, 2 area steering superintendents
> and 1 assistant superintendent steering manager.
>
> They also implemented a new performance system that would
> give the 2 people rowing the boat greater incentive to work
> harder. It was called the 'Rowing Team Quality First
> Program,' with meetings, dinners and free pens for the
> rowers. There was discussion of getting new paddles,
> canoes and other equipment, extra vacation days for
> practices and bonuses. The pension program was trimmed to
> 'equal the competition' and some of the resultant
> savings were channeled into morale boosting programs and
> teamwork posters.
>
> The next year the Japanese won by two miles.
>
> Humiliated, the American management laid off one rower,
> halted development of a new canoe, sold all the paddes,
> and canceled all capital investments for new equipment.
> The money saved was distributed to the Senior Executives as
> bonuses.
>
> The next year, try as he might, the lone designated rower
> was unable to even finish the race (having no paddles,) so
> he was laid off for unacceptable performance, all canoe
> equipment was sold and the next year's racing team was
> out-sourced to India.
>
> Sadly, the End.
>
> Here's something else to think about: Ford has spent
> the last thirty years moving all its factories out of the
> US , claiming they can't make money paying
> American wages.
>
> TOYOTA has spent the last thirty years building more than a
> dozen plants inside the US The last quarter's
> results:
>
> TOYOTA makes 4 billion in profits while Ford racked up 9
> billion in losses.
>
> Ford folks are still scratching their heads, and
> collecting bonuses...
>
> IF THIS WEREN'T SO TRUE IT MIGHT BE FUNNY

[Icemaster]

How many Ford plants are union as opposed to Toyota?

[dentist90]

The scary thing about the financial crisis is that once lending companies get out of trouble they will try to find some way to stimulate more growth again... how long before they start thinking cheap, no security loans is a good way to do it? The difference between real life and the donkey story is that I can just see the donkey trader coming back to town after we've been stung, and some will fall for it again. Making money the legit way just takes too long.

[DanielDudley]

Originally Posted by Icemaster

How many Ford plants are union as opposed to Toyota?

Toyota workers have good benefits too.

[Tobra]

How about a class action suit against some of the responsible parties. Reclaim some of those big CEO bonuses of companies that screwed the pooch?

Dueller...anyone...Dueller(in my best Ben Stein monotone)

[strupgolf]

I almost fell over when I noticed that the CEO of Chrysler is the same F***-up who ran Home Depot into the ground as their CEO. Then after he did that, he was forced out with a huge golden parachute package. Dont give these jack-ass'es a dime.

[RWebb]

ha - thats nothing -- guess what Carly F. and Meg Ryan have been doing recently...

[Tobra]

is it each other?