A Tale of Private Equity

An American investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal Greek village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked.

Inside the small boat were several large yellow fin tuna. The American complimented the Greek on the quality of his fish and asked, "How long does it take to catch them?"

The Greek replied: "Only a little while."

The American then asked why didn't he stay out longer and catch more fish? The Greek said he had enough to support his family's immediate needs. The American then asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?"

The Greek fisherman said, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play cards with my friends, I have a full and busy life."

The American scoffed, "I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat with the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats, eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Athens, then London and eventually New York where you will run your expanding enterprise."

The Greek fisherman asked, "But, how long will this all take?" To which the American replied, "15-25 years."

"But what then?"

The American laughed and said that's the best part. "When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions."

"Millions ... Then what?"

The American said, "Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play cards with your friends."

If it was Romney, he'd borrow a million against the boat, fire the fisherman, then declare bankruptcy, pocket the difference, and burn the boat.

And no, the fisherman is NOT "on welfare", on "unemployment" or looking for a government hand-out...

Declare bankruptcy? Sounds more like something Obama would do.

FredHayek wrote: Declare bankruptcy? Sounds more like something Obama would do.

Not really...But since you don't have anything else more relevant, I expected it to be below your usual level of drivel.

The Greek fisherman is a slacker and not doing his duty to add growth to GDP, tax revenues, and create jobs.

That's ok though, I agree with his lifestyle.

rofllol

LadyJazzer wrote:

FredHayek wrote: Declare bankruptcy? Sounds more like something Obama would do.

Not really...But since you don't have anything else more relevant, I expected it to be below your usual level of drivel.

Under Obama, America's credit rating has fallen and debt level has increased to record levels, sounds like Barack is heading down that road.
:Whistle But just continue to ignore that the man has no plan to get us out of this mess and no accomplishments to run on.

Wait just a minute folks - SFB might actually have something with this parable. The solution to our unemployment problem is to have everyone working part time instead of most of us working full time. It will cut down on the amount of hours everyone works and we can all share the pain of this current problem that we are facing. Everyone gets paid just enough to keep food on the table, 1500 sq. ft. worth of living space, clothes on everyone's back and shoes on everyone's feet and everyone gets to be employed part time and spend the rest of their time with their family taking siesta's, watching the kids (no more subsidies for day care - everyone is working part time now, remember?) and generally taking life a might slower than before. What do you say . . . . . you in?

When the Obama recession was continuing, I did see some liberals extolling the virtues of people working part time, more time for the family, less stress. (Until you had to get the money together for rent or a mortgage.)

I'm trying to figure out what the point is relating to this country. We have almost 16 trillion in debt and many times more in unfunded liabilities. At this point, we have no way to pay it off and people whine about raising the retirement age as it is. Guess we should just get out our guns and fishing poles and live off the land like this Greek guy, then just waiit until the food runs out.

I had always heard this tale about a Mexican fisherman, but the Greek version is more ironic.

In Greece, the fisherman would get to retire at 50 and get a full pension and they wonder why their goverment debt is out of control.

It's a worker's paradise parable. One gets to work for only a short period of time and then enjoy all the good things in life and be happy. One of the great things about this union of ours is that if one desires the life of this fisherman, they are free to pursue it and if one desires the life of the financier, they are free to pursue that one as well. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness - right?

The problem with the parable is that eventually some enterprising Greek, who wants to ensure the welfare of his children and his children's children after he is gone, is going to do just as the financier suggested. At that point, the price that the fisherman can get for his yellow fin tuna is going to drop because the other guy has the economy of scale working for him. Then the one guy in the one boat is going to be on the water for a lot longer, catching a lot more fish, just to keep his current income and in the process lose the ability to siesta with his wife, play with the kids and in the evening he will be so tired from the length of his labor that he will not feel like strolling into the village in the evening to play cards and sip wine. He will become an embittered man - much like our own embittered soul who started this thread.