Transcription
Vera en Aadje Dirkzwager, met Floris en Reinoud, woonden van oktober 1977 tot november 1979 In Sevenoaks/Kent Engeland.
The Zillionaire
When we lived in Sevenoakes/England, Vera and I, with our sons Floris (10) and Reinoud (8) and six boyfriends, attended a performance of a children's theater on Leicester Square. The performance illustrated in a fairy tale way the relationship between production and purchasing power.
At the start of the performance, an industrialist/entrepreneur stood on stage with a very large thermometer next to him that indicated his wealth during the performance.
He loudly declared to the children that he didn't want to become a millionaire, but a Zillionaire. He asked if anyone in the room could give him an idea how to realize his dream? Overwhelmed by the unexpected question, there was no response from the audience.
Then, to the surprise of the children, a magical shrimp (a variant of the magic fairy) appeared on the stage. The shrimp told the industrialist that he has a bright idea how to fulfill his wish to become a zillionaire. She suggested to the entrepreneur to start producing a special type of top quality "breakfast cereals" and she could hand to him the blueprint for the production of this top quality cereals. Demand for this brand breakfast cereals would far exceed production and wealth lay ahead.
The entrepreneur, blinded by the wonderful expectation of future business
results, was immediately won over by the ideas of the shrimp, ignoring one objectionable circumstance regarding the production of these cereals. The raw material had to consist of people.
The Magic Shrimp, now alone on the stage, told the children her motivation as to why she had given away the blueprint for the manufacture of these cereals without any compensation.
We shrimps live peacefully in groups in the sea. Our greatest enemy is the people. Shrimp in the sea have never done anything wrong to people who live on land.
On the other hand, people have been unscrupulously disrupting our peaceful existence for a long time by fishing us out of the water with nets. That makes us very sad. They do that to eat us.
To put an end to this shameless practice, we came up with the idea of turning people into breakfast cereals. The fewer people there are in the world, the less we are fished for.
After six months, the construction of the factory was completed, and it was soon possible to start producing breakfast cereals according to the supplied recipe from the Magic Shrimp.
Sales met the expectations of engineers and production
cardboard boxes of cereal went smoothly as planned. The demand for the newly introduced breakfast cereal brand in stores was overwhelming.
The entrepreneur's wealth indicator on the scene immediately began to rise.
From the moment the factory started production, BBC news reports reported the first puzzling disappearances of the population of entire villages in the north of England.
The breakfast cereals from the entrepreneur's factory flew off the shelves of the shops like hot cakes. However, the mysterious depopulation of the country also moved closer to London.
Demand even exceeds more and more production, with the misunderstood phenomena that the depopulation via Central England came closer and closer to London. The entrepreneur's wealth shot very high on his welfare in the direction of the zillion mark of the wealth-thermometer.
According to a BBC broadcast, the misunderstood disappearance of people in the country was such, that the police launched a large-scale investigation into the mysterious cause of the disappearance.
But one BBC broadcast after another reported troubling disappearances: the entire police force in the country is gone. The cause is inexplicable. The cereal boxes produced came on the market in the blue-colored police uniform boxes and the entire police force was likewise mysteriously nowhere to be seen.
Not long after that, a new expensive variety of breakfast cereals was on offer, namely "Royal Breakfast Cereals, packed in boxes decorated with a crown. A striking coincidence was that the Royal Family hadn't been seen in public for over a month, according to the BBC newsreader.
The wealth of the entrepreneur, who had meanwhile become increasingly
wealthy, reached one zillion Pounds Stirling on the sale proceeds of one boх.
The whole country was depopulated except for the entrepreneur himself.
Thus there was no raw material available for the production of one box and not any longer purchasing power to buy the one box.
At this pivotal moment, the Magic Shrimp entered the scene, pitying the
entrepreneur who would miss his goal of becoming a Zillionaire by just one box and willing to buy the last box. She suggested that the entrepreneur first lay down the conveyor belt of the machine, so that he himself could serve as raw material for the last box. Elated and deeply grateful, he accepts the Magic Shrimp's proposal. He had achieved his goal in his monomaniacal pursuit of becoming a Zillionaire.
Conclusion:
It seems undeniable to me that the entrepreneur has not contributed to increasing happiness in the world through his actions. He didn't produce any purchasing power.
Adriaan D. Dirkzwager
Fecit dec.2022
