An Analogy for the Current Financial Crisis

Suppose for a moment that you were a well-to-do landowner in the old south.  You had a sprawling estate in the beautiful woods of... say... Georgia.  Your family was not too large, but big enough to efficiently operate the estate, although you needed to bring in lots of fuel and food from neighbors.  You have an appetite to consume that is far too great for self-sufficiency.

A hurricane has begun.  It is not safe to be outside, but luckily your house was built sturdy and should remain intact.

Father has been out hunting and using up much of the potable water, so supplies were low.  Not to mention the fact that father has pissed some neighbors off by poaching game on their land.

So you are hunkered down to ride out the storm.  You hope that you have enough water to make it through, but you aren't sure.  This storm is pretty impressive in scale and duration.

Then all of a sudden, the bottom falls out...

What!  Wally started a fire in the game room!  Damn, I knew that kid was up to no good.  I've told that incorrigible brat time and time again to stop playing with fire, but he never learns.  This is not the first time that Wally's antics have cost the whole family.

The fire has begun, and appears to have the potential to bring down the entire house if it isn't stopped.  This is the worst fire since the Great Fire of the previous century.

So, of course, the irresponsible Wally comes running to the cousins to ask them to pool all of their water together and throw it on the fire.   This will require that everyone in the household give up their precious, and much needed, water.

If you don't use your water to put out the fire, it will likely burn the whole house down - and then where will you be?  If you do use the water, who knows if it will even stop the fire?  You could then be stuck in the middle of a hurricane with no shelter and no water.  Even worse, your neighbors won't help you.  It doesn't matter that you help them all of the time.  They'll turn their back on you and watch you perish.  Their only regret will be that they don't get handouts anymore.

Uncle Pauly since he is a fire expert and knows exactly how much water it will take to stop the fire: 700 gallons.  Do we put all of the water on at once?  Where do we throw it?  Uncle Ben has some firefighting experience, and has studied fires like this in the past... but every fire is different.

700 gallons!  Damn you, Wally!