Most of us here at the "Cri" are or will turn 18 in the coming months. This means two things:
well be heading off to university soon
we'll be able to vote.

With this in mind, it is quite understandable that we're pondering what the future will be like. We therefore think it is valuable to take into account the consequences of a change of government. Let's take the example of two cows:

~ Feudalism:
You have two cows. Your lord takes some of the milk.

~ Pure Socialism:
You have two cows. The government takes them and puts them in a barn with everyone else's cows. You have to take care of everyone else's cows. The government gives you as much milk as you need.

~ Bureaucratic Socialism:
You have two cows. The government takes them and puts them in a barn with everyone else's cows. They are cared for by ex-chicken farmers. You have to take care of the chickens the government took from the chicken farmers. The government gives you as much milk and as many eggs as the regulations say you should need.

~ Fascism:
You have two cows. The government takes both, hires you to take care of them, and sells you the milk.

~ Pure Communism:
You have two cows. Your neighbours help you take care of them, and you all share the milk.

~ Russian Communism:
You have two cows. You have to take care of them, but the government takes all the milk.

~ Dictatorship:
You have two cows. The government takes both and shoots you.

~ Singaporean Democracy:
You have two cows. The government fines you for keeping two unlicensed farm animals in an apartment.

~ Militarism:
You have two cows. The government takes both and drafts you.

~ Pure Democracy:
You have two cows. Your neighbours decide who gets the milk.

~ Representative Democracy:
You have two cows. Your neighbours pick someone to tell you who gets the milk.

~ American Democracy:
The government promises to give you two cows if you vote for it. After the election, the president is impeached for speculating in cow futures. The press dubs the affair "Cowgate".

~ British Democracy:
You have two cows. You feed them sheeps' brains and they go mad. The government doesn't do anything.

~ Bureaucracy:
You have two cows. At first the government regulates what you can feed them and when you can milk them. Then it pays you not to milk them. After that it takes both, shoots one, milks the other and pours the milk down the drain. Then it requires you to fill out forms accounting for the missing cows.

~ Anarchy:
You have two cows. Either you sell the milk at a fair price or your neighbours try to kill you and take the cows.

~ Capitalism:
You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull.

~ Hong-Kong Capitalism:
You have two cows. You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of credit opened by your brother-in-law at the bank, then execute a debt/equity swap with associated general offer so that you get all four cows back, with a tax deduction for keeping five cows. The milk rights of six cows are transferred via a Panamanian intermediary to a Cayman Islands company secretly owned by the majority shareholder, who sells the right to all seven cows' milk back to the listed company. The annual report says that the company owns eight cows, with an option on one more. Meanwhile, you kill the two cows because the fung shw is bad.

~ Environmentalism:
You have two cows. The government bans you from milking or killing them.

~ Feminism:
You have two cows. They get married and adopt a calf.

~ Totalitarism:
You have two cows. The government takes them and denies they ever existed. Milk is banned.

~ Political Correctness:
You are associated with (the concept of "ownership" is a symbol of the phallocentric, war mongering, intolerant past) two differently-aged (but no less valuable to society) bovines of non-specified gender.

~ Counter Culture:
Wow, dude, there's like... these two cows, man. You got to have some of this milk.

~ Surrealism:
You have two giraffes. The government requires you to take harmonica lessons.

Conclusion: We hope this example has enlightened you as to the importance of government (and cows) to everyday life.