ivantohelpyou

I recently read (aloud, in an imitation Irish brogue) Jamie O'Rourke and the Big Potato, a parable of scarcity and plenty by Tomie dePaola.

SPOILER ALERT

When Jamie O'Rourke is forced back into the workforce after the injury of his productive spouse Eileen, he despairs of starvation and goes to visit Father O'Malley in the middle of the night to give his confession. But then he comes across a leprechaun making fairy shoes for a livelihood. Jamie shakes down the leprechaun for gold, but the leprechaun claims he's practically broke and instead gives Jamie a magic seed for growing the biggest potato in the world.

The leprechaun is true to his word, and indeed Jamie grows the biggest potato ever. He can't dig it up himself, and so he gets the neighbors to help him dig it up. However, the potato ends up blocking the main road into town, and so Jamie is responsible for moving it. To do so, he lets everyone take as much as they want. But with the abundance, everyone gets sick of eating potatoes. Then, when Jamie mentions that he's retained a seed to plant the next year, all of the villagers pay him to withhold production.

This story has the following morals:

1. If you encounter a defenseless common laborer, threaten to take his nest egg unless he gives you something you can use for sustainable competitive advantage.
   
2. Religious intent is a valid excuse for the behavior described above.
3. To become wealthy, flood the market with a mass-produced version of something that people could otherwise produce themselves, and that they must consume in order to engage in ordinary commerce. This will depress producer prices and result in government intervention favorable to your operations.
   

In short, Tomie dePaola has created a Machiavellian playbook for market domination under the economics of diminishing marginal cost, couched in the language of a childrens' book. Must-reading for MBAs everywhere.

Labels: books