Expansion of the Fish-Giving-Teaching Parable

You know the old parable: "Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime."

We're going to take this further and create a parable for Capitalism vs. Socialism.

Let's say a man is taught how to fish, and he starts fishing in his little village. He gets really good at it, and has more than he needs to feed his family. Some of this he chooses to give to his neighbors who have fallen on bad times. Some he trades with local farmers, or for other goods.

But man, this spot is a jackpot - he can't keep the fish out of the boat he is so good at it. So, he decides to hire some of his neighbors to fish with him. But not everyone in the village is good at fishing, or has any ability to be good at it. Some are good at cleaning the fish. They use everything. The local farms start producing more because of the natural fertilizer.

He needs another boat and oars. The local carpenter in town builds it for him. The local carpenter needs to focus on building the boats, so he hires people to go find the wood and mill it, and more people to help him put the boats together. Nails are needed, and pitch. Other businesses expand, blacksmiths and pitch producers.

The fisherman needs more nets and sails, so the local seamstress starts weaving and repairing the nets. She needs help weaving the rope to make the nets, so she can focus on making the nets.

The fishermen need new clothes - they wear out with the hard work, and get really smelly. Another local seamstress starts making clothes, and innovates to create pockets for tools, or special gloves to protect their hands against the sharp fish fins and rope burns. Other fishing villages hear about these advancements and they start exporting the clothes. A washing service is started, to wash the clothes.

The fish keep coming. People he trained man their own boats. Some start their own business fishing. They begin to export the fish, selling them to distributors that transport them to other villages in the area and beyond. Wagons are needed, as well as stables for the horses. More and more people are employed, taking care of horses, fixing and making wagons.

The abundance is so great, that luxury goods start coming into town. Some creative people start making art, or music, or write plays to perform, and the people pay to see them.

The fishing village grows to the point where it needs a government - it needs an elected body to protect the people from criminals and thieves, to enforce contracts, and to maintain the roads coming and going out of town. A small tax is levied on everyone to pay for these services.

The fisherman who started it all is rich, as well as those who built their businesses at the onset of the fishing boom. But there are still poor people too - people who just don't have any useful skills, or who are sick or injured, and the people of the town continue to help them - giving them a fish so they can eat for a day, because they just can't take care of themselves.

But then the local governmental body doesn't think it is fair that the fisherman is so rich when there are those in the town that are so poor. So they decide to tax the fisherman more, because he has more.

The fisherman has to cut back on his business, because it just doesn't make sense with the higher taxes. Those cuts travel down through the system, forcing layoffs at the other businesses dependent upon the thriving fishing business. The amount of fish produced is reduced, and thus less trade.

Those people who got laid off need help. There are more people than before that need their fish for a day, and the governmental body doesn't have enough taxes from the rich fisherman to pay for it all. So, they raise the tax again on the rich fisherman, and on some of the other richer businesses in the area.

Again, it doesn't make sense to keep more employees than the fisherman and the other businesses can afford. More layoffs, and more people in need.

The governmental body is now being pressured by the poor for food and services. They raise taxes again. More layoffs. More people in need. Less business. Less production.

Soon, the fisherman is alone in his boat again. Everyone's taxes are high to pay for all the poor.

Today, the village is a ghost town.

Capitalism vs. Socialism - Capitalism creates, Socialism destroys.