Wednesday, October 22, 2008

HMMMM.....LET'S SEE........

One has a hottie for a running mate.....and the other is gonna let me drink for free?


Suppose that every day, 10 men go out for beer and the bill for all 10 comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this: The first 4 men (the poorest) would pay nothing. The fifth would pay $1. The sixth would pay $3. The seventh would pay $7. The eighth would pay $12. The ninth would pay $18. The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59. So, that' what they decided to do. The 10 men drank in the bar every day & seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. 'Since you are all such good customers, he said, 'I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20. Drinks for the 10 now cost just $80. The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first 4 men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other 6 men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?' They realized that $20 divided by 6 is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man & the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, & he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay. And so: The fifth man, like the first 4, now paid nothing (100% savings). The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings). The seventh now paid $5 instead of $7 (28%savings). The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings). The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings). The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings). Each of the 6 was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings. 'I only got a dollar out of the $20', declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man,' but he got $10!' 'Yeah, that's right', exclaimed the fifth man. 'I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that he got 10 times more than me!' 'That's true!!' shouted the seventh man. Why should he get $10 back when I got only 2? The wealthy get all the breaks!' 'Wait a minute,' yelled the first 4 men in unison. 'We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!' The 9 men surrounded the tenth and beat him up. The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the 9 sat down & had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even 1/2 of the bill!

5 comments:

Tim said...

So they switched to tequila?

jwm said...

Remember when you asked when you would need math in the real world? Now you don't get no more free beer. Nice going.

-jwm

Kerry said...

The remaining 9 would have plenty of beer money had they not blown their paychecks on all the durable goods that the tenth man makes us believe that we need. There would not be a concentration of wealth in the hands of the tenth man if it were not for his influence on the spending habits of the remaining 9.

Anonymous said...

I always drink quick, leave before the bill comes, pay nothing and walk out with the money left on the bar.

DIHAF? said...

So lets get this straight, Kerry. Certain people blow all their money because they were tricked by others into buying things.

So do you have a basement full of Ronko products and sham wow and Franklin Mint coins and abdominizers?

And rich people get rich by tricking people into buying durable goods by making them believe they need they.

Huh? Is hypnotism involved? How about hypmotizin'?