We’re gonna need a bigger boat

Oh, I actually know this one.

The business man works hard and looks for all sorts of ways to maximize his money and earnings, spending more time away from his family and getting stressed from not having time to pursue his hobbies or enjoy his life. The "lazy" man does what he needs to do for the interim and enjoys his free time while living a low stress life.

Yes, there are merits and downsides to both positions, and the moral of the story is to find a happy balance that allows you to make more while still being able to enjoy your life. Because really, what good is all the money in the world if you don't have time to spend or enjoy it until you're in old age?

@Sorflakne "Balance" is not really the moral that transpired in this drawing though. Nor does it seem to be the moral of the original story. In this drawing the moral seems more to be why are you postponing the search of happiness by doing something you don't like but everybody else is telling you will bring you happiness rather than searching for hapiness now. The fisherman really does seem to be the rational guy and the business man the irrational one.
Also it seems to me it's underlined by a clear cut criticism against the liberal doctrine and productivism in general.

@Isdaril The story also often ignores that someone that only fish just enough to get by usually doesn't have much leeway if anything unexpected happens. If you fish more than you need to and sell the rest, you get a reserve of hard cash that can be used to get other things and to tide you over during unforeseen expenses/bad fishing season.

It's an old story, but it always leaves out what happens to the fisherman's family if he doesn't catch enough the next day, or if there's a medical emergency, or if his kids want to pursue an education.

It's important to remember that the only importance money has is that it enables the things that are important. Health is more important than money, but you aren't going to be healthy without paying for medical care and a varied diet. Family is more important than money, except it's extremely hard to keep a family together without the most basic of necessities, to say nothing of the actual financial cost of raising a kid these days. Self respect is important, but it's a lot easier to respect yourself when you have enough money that you have the option of not doing something you'd rather not do. Love is incredibly important, but curiously, love seems to be more difficult without money.

@CorruptUser you are assuming "what I need" means "bare minimum", maybe the fisherman's "what I need" includes a margin allowing him to save up for rainy days? It's also worth noting that fish spoils easily & preserving it takes time and money, meaning you can't really fish multiple days' worth in a day "just in case" with any regularity.

Then we come to the sustainability, producing extra for the sake of being able to produce even more extra isn't sustainable & it has been proven time and time again that people who increase their work load so they can hire people so they can get even more work done (which to a business owner only increases the work load & if they hire others to do the work for them they need to expand even more to make enough money to pay for others to do all the work, and even then they need to keep an eye on their employees because if something happens it's the business owner who's on the hook), aren't exactly the happiest people in the world, so in case of a fishing empire, this vicious cycle is all but guaranteed to wreak havoc on the fish populations which over time means being forced to downsize the business which is never fun to anyone, and by the time the downsizing starts the fisherman who started it all is probably burned out & may not have a penny more in his pockets afterwards than he had before he got the bright idea to start expanding his business.

'@Tsuhna' Of course that's a possibility, it's called risk. But it can pay off tremendously well.

And most Entrepreneurs only go into a business that they themselves would relatively enjoy and slowly expand their business and profits and demand go up. I think what you're describing is someone who doesn't know what they're doing and rushes things

@LogicMeister which part of "unsustainable" managed to escape you? My post was made in the context of this comic, namely the most likely result of following Suit's advice to the letter; decimated fish population, burned out fisherman, scaled-down or even bankrupt company & not a penny more to show for all the wasted time, effort, money and especially fish.

@Tsuhna interesting how you think that fisherman could just catch as much as he wanted as fast as he wanted. Even assuming no constraints like logistics or limitations of national economic zones, didn't you know that industrial fishing was increasingly regulated starting from at least 1936?

@comrade_Comrade and since when has anyone cared about those regulations? Iceland and UK almost went to war at least three times in 20th century over the fact that UK fishers were fishing in Iceland's national economic zone to the point of strangulating Iceland's domestic fishing industry, at least two of those times were *after* 1936 & these days people are defending the Somali pirates on the grounds of British and/or other Western fishers fishing the Somali coast empty.

@Tsuhna remind me how Cod Wars ended. Regarding Somalia, you should have noticed the distinct lack of government that can enforce any sort of licensing in it's territorial waters. Nice argument in favor of having an actual navy, I suppose.

Meanwhile, doesn't look like fish farms' business is threatened by illegal overfishing in territorial waters of failed states.

@comrade_Comrade fish farms have their own, completely different & in a way far worse problems.

@CorruptUser


The fisherman clearly lives in a country with a well funded social safety net, which includes healthcare and education funding, so those aren't an issue.

@CrypticMirror But those things are paid from taxes, and you can't pay taxes if you just catch enough fish for yourself.

@CorruptUser
Lol in almost every western country in the world, except America.

- If he doesn't catch enough the next day: The government provides welfare.
- If there's a medical emergency: The government provides free healthcare.
- If his kids want to pursue an education: The government provides free education.

@lll111lll

Except in the story I've seen, the fisherman is in Brazil, which isn't known for a generous welfare system. And in the western countries that are not America, and also the country that is America, the rents/property tax and income tax/VAT are high enough that the fisherman is already busting his ass just to make ends meet even without spending on the frivolous things.

I mean, sure we all could give up new cellphones, keep our clothes until even patches won't keep them together, only heat our homes to 55F in the winter and forgo AC in all but the most extreme of times, not bother with television and cable bills, take public transportation instead of owning a car, etc, but even then a blue collar worker such as a fisherman would still need to work 15-20 hours a week WITHOUT kids to feed.

@CorruptUser https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anekdote_zur_Senkung_der_Arbeitsmoral
Though obviously the story doesn't depict an actual situation : fishing is a hard job that has crappy wages and as much as it is a useful job, I wouldn't want to do that for a living.
BUT that really is besides the point. The point of the story is to show that pursuing money for money is just a vain thing (which is exactly what the business man is doing).

Also from a realistic point of view the crappy situation in which fishermen (and really most workers) currently are is mostly due to those people wanting to earn more and more every day and squeezing every penny they can out of everybody they know (and even from the people they don't know) so it can become so. Bottom line is : the world would be a better place without businessmen and entrepreneurs...

@CorruptUser "And in the western countries that are not America the rents/property tax and income tax/VAT are high enough that the fisherman is already busting his ass just to make ends meet even without spending on the frivolous things"
Nope, America is cheaper than Finland & wages are higher, yet somehow Americans whose cost of living is lower & "low wages" are double what would be paid here, Americans pay more taxes than I do & still need to pay out the nose for even the most basic health care, the truth is USA isn't taxing the people any less than the "communist utopias" you guys always rant about, what USA *IS* doing that the rest of the world isn't is force the people to pay for their own health care & brainwash the people into believing that laws guaranteeing everyone eligibility to health insurance is evil.

The original source for this is a 1963 short story by Heinrich Böll titled Anekdote zur Senkung der Arbeitsmoral. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anekdote_zur_Senkung_der_Arbeitsmoral.

@EdPalmer

This framing, yes.

As noted in that article, there are earlier versions going back at least as far as Plutarch.

Work to live, don't live to work.

"I caught all the fish I need for the day" - that phrase can be understood in two ways. Lots of people seem to think fisherman says he got only enough to get him through that day.
I have story from my own experience. I like cutting trees (mostly so forests won't be to thick and remaining trees grow fat), I work for ~2 hours per day. I also got asked question why I dont work more and earn more. My answer same as fisherman. 2 hours = 50euros profit at the very least. My living /spending expenses never reach more than 15 euros. That leaves me with 10k extra each year. So I say "I cut all the trees for they day" and do whatever I want for the rest. Be it more cutting, sleeping, drinking or whatever I want...

And in the instances where the fisherman decides to take the capitalist up on the idea, they quickly find that the capitalist is the one selling the boats and fishing gear and the one who buys the fish, and before too long none of the fishermen in the area can afford to eat the fish they catch anymore.

@ShoggothOnTheRoof ...be careful...!
...you know too much...! ;-)

There was this spanish orange juice tycoon. When asked about the origin of his fortune, he told that when young and very hungry he was given two oranges. He peeled both, and while eating the first a tourist bought the second, peeled one. So he bought two more, peeled and sold them, and so on. "Then, that's how you became so wealthy, right?" "Hell no, I won 50 MM euros at the lottery last year. Lousy oranges just soiled my shirts"

This particular version (with the fisherman) is Heinrich Böll's "Anekdote zur Senkung der Arbeitsmoral" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anekdote_zur_Senkung_der_Arbeitsmoral). Similar ideas go back to antiquity, though.

@Callid ...hatten wir auch in der Schule...! ;-)
...früher lebten wir um zu arbeiten...
...und wenn wir dann heute 'nur' arbeiten um zu leben, wird schon wieder über 'spätantike Dekadenz' gejammert...! :-(

So capitalists decided to give what he needs only if he works as much as they want.

This reminds me of "The Ant and the Grasshopper"! It's a decent reminder that humans aren't ants. Nor are they grasshoppers. If you can't ever stop to appreciate a sunrise, morning fog, salt spray, starry night, etc. then what has all the work amounted to? Of course, if you can't keep a roof over your head or food in your belly, then how much will you appreciate the snow or rain?

@Darthmaeglin The theme is similar indeed, but i guess the moral of this one is reversed compared to the La Fontaine fable. In the La Fontaine fable the wise one was the ant while here it's the fisherman.