A farmer owned a small piece of land that he used to rear some cute animals to make a living. During the initial good years, there were around 30 happy animals sharing the small space comfortably in harmony. The farmer managed to make good profits with proper planning and management.
One strange night when lightning strike through his mind, he realized no matter how good he could manage the animals, there was always a limit to the amount of money they could generate for him. He started to import more and different types of animals from the wild into his small piece of land to the count of 53, such that every animal could hardly move. The old animals could not do anything except to continue working, while the new ones were happy enough that they were able to get food and it was a reasonably safe haven compared to living in the wild.
Needless to say, the farmer managed to generate more income from the larger number of upkeep. He was delighted and proud that he was making more money than other farmers. Before he could resolve the problems of the tight space for his animals, he made greater plan to expand his income by getting more animals. He targeted the final number of upkeep to be 70, which was around 32% increment.
However, in order to prevent further SPCA and public outcries regarding the welfare of the animals, the farmer did something while announcing his plan. Firstly, he reduced the targeted number of animals to 69 instead of 70 because 69 sounded much nicer while it was simply one less than his target, which was a brilliant marketing strategy. Secondly, he announced that he would expand his small piece of land by 8% by filling the surrounding swamp, which was an expensive and time-consuming job. Lastly, he claimed that his animals were not actively giving birth and thus had to take in new ones in order for the farm to continue its prosperity to keep his existing animals alive and comfortable.
As the plan proceeded, the strongest animals were able to live comfortably and snatch the better food. A few of the reasonably fit animals were able to make their escape to join their farms instead but the rest of the animals were too helpless to do anything. The animals’ movements were more restricted than ever as the space added on was smaller than the number of new intakes. Birth rate continued to drop due to unhappiness while the new animals were not reproducing as well.
Eventually when the target of 69 was hit, less than one quarter of the animals were his initial cute animals while more than half of the farm’s animals were too old to work.
Finally, the farmer announced his retirement plan, taking away his windfall made throughout the years and leaving the animals to survive on their own.