The $50,000 Dog

An economist was leaving his office building and saw a little boy sitting on the curb with a dog. The boy yelled at the economist, "Hey, how would you like to buy a dog?" The man was intrigued by this sales approach and asked the boy, "How much do you want for your dog." The boy told him, "Fifty thousand dollars."  
 "Fifty thousand dollars!" the man repeated in astonishment. "What special tricks does this dog do that he can earn enough money to be worth fifty thousand dollars?" the man asked the boy. The boy replied, "Mister, this dog never made a nickel in his life. Matter of fact, count what he eats I guess you could say you lose money on him every year."

The economist felt this was a good time to explain economics to the young man and expounded on how an item had to produce more income than it consumed to equal a purchase price.  He ended his brief lesson stating that he could possibly get five dollars for the mutt from someone who just wanted a companion. Feeling he had imparted a very valuable lesson to the young man, the economist went on his way.

A few weeks later, the economist came out of his office building and the small boy was again sitting on the curb minus the dog. The man said to him, "I see you took my advise and sold the dog for five dollars." The boy said, "No, I got fifty thousand dollars for him." The business man was completely flabbergasted. "How did you ever get fifty thousand dollars for that dog" he asked.

"It was easy," said the boy. "I traded him for two twenty five thousand dollar cats. 



"Moral of the Story: Things rarely have an objective worth, only the values that are ascribed to them