Once upon a time, the ancient human wore no shoes.
Then someday, a bunch of people herded and talking with their gesturing hands.
¨Hey ya fellas, guess wot? I've gotten an idea." One said, changed his sound to whispers.
All of a sudden, the rest stared at him, questioning, while some had straws in their mouths.
" Do ya guys know wot people would need in recent days?" The one asked with a glimmer in his eyes.
The others stared at him, still questioning, with their naive eyes.
The one looked down on their bare feet, then raised his head, and repeated that move for several times.
The others stared at him, anyhow with their hollow eyes.
The one sighed, said to his unenlightened group:" Shelter for your toes, man!"
It followed with a silent blank, while others clearly having a mind hunting.
" Then why do we need shelter for our toes?" A tiny little sound broke the silence, and it was so weak that no one could tell who had made it.
" Then you won't break your toes and feel hurt anymore, you dumbass!" The one shouted, obviously lost his temper since the group had ruined the moment.
And then, all of a sudden, the rest hailed, like they had found a new piece of land.
The one, finally pleased, stood up from crouch.
" This is marvelous, we should give it a name." The one said.
" Name of wot?" , there was another murmur.
" The name of the toe shelter!" The one felt beaten.
" Toe shelter...shelter of toe..., how about Sheltoe?" The one asked.
The group dimmed into another silence.
" That word is too long, not easy for us to remember." An order broke the ice.
The one nodded, he had to admit that the order was right about it since it took him so long to enlighten the group with a simple idea.
" Shoe." The one spoke it loud, " I name it Shoe, it's short to remember and it's easy to say out."
" Then Shoe it is!" The older shouted with cheer.
" Alright then, now we make shoes with leather and ratten, and we make them for men, women and children."
" They will come exchange shoes with their shells, and we can use those shells for food and other staffs, even women."
The picture loomed in the group's minds. And, they started making shoes thereafter as they decided.
( We may see them as morons, but at that time they are not. They created needs and benefitted from it, just as those who created things nowadays stimulating people for buying.)
Shoes been made, and exchanged on the market.
However, people from the group had made different choices.
Some chose to make men shoes, while some others chose to make women's or children's.
Soon they found out men, women and children consume different number of shoes.
Men, who were the main labor of the society, consumed much more shoes than women and children whose expenses mostly comes from men.
Therefore, more of the group started making men shoes.
However, the making was not paired with purchasing. The shoes were so comfortable and no-one would never had to worry hurting their feet.
After acknowledge of such circumstances, the group of shoe makers gathered around and had a meeting.
" Ya fellas must know how things are going for these days, our shoes are astonishing! However, shortage has merged with supplies since those muggles desire more shoes." The one speaked first and obviously became the leader of the shoes maker group.
" Then we make more shoes." Someone thought he was civilized enough to speak in front of others, and clearly the shells he earned from selling shoes had made him rich but stupider than ever before.
Others were just like him, instead of those naive look they had, greed flickered in their eyes.
" No, ya moron! We should set up a new way for our industries."
" But how? It's just us, we have already had our families involved in all our business, we are hand shorted and we don't wanna other group get their hand in our territory as well." The Old spoke, showed his wisdom grew with age.
" We can raise the price." And clearly someone did some thinking.
" No, we do not. Raise the price can only profit us a little, and I have come to a better way to even benefit us more, more than ya can imagine." The one said so.
" Well then, wot is it?!" It is always good to know that there is a way to rich.
" Here is wot I thought," the one cleared his throat, " Instead of selling shoes, we sell the rights of getting shoes in certain time.”
" Then how's that gonna profit us?" Someone asked, without thinking.
" Ya guys should really learn to think," The one silenced for a while to get others attention as they were so uncivilized to be distracted.
“ We sell the rights, and promise people whoever paid will get their shoes in 10 days, and guess what, we get paid in advance, and we still have hold the chance of raise the price, right?”
“ Huvvy!” Others were hauling, celebrating the whole new era of their business.
Right after that meeting, the group started selling shoes-getting rights to people, and people were fine with that since whoever paid will get their shoes eventually and the price was still the same, or at least as they thought.
Things kept going well for a period of time, no one got hurt.
However, problems showed as ink stains pop up from white paper.
As the shoes getting rights has been sold as much as the group wants, these shoe makers started knowing that they may not make enough shoes for all the payers.
“ What should we do? People will know about this eventually, and they will get mad about this.” Someone asked the group when they were in the meeting they hold every month.
“ Ok, don not panic,” the one walked out of the crowd, step into the center podium, “ Let me ask you, based on your experiences, who, I mean men, women, or children by more shoes?”
“ Men works, they wear out more shoes than women and children.” The answer was obvious.
“ Then we make a waiting list, a list that states pairs of names and dates. Those who pay first will have a early date for getting a pair of shoes priorer than those pay later than.”
“ It’s not different than wot we are doing now.”
“ Of course it is different.” The one emphasized, “ It means that we can extend this list like forever and as long as there’s no other makers on the market, people have to come to us and get listed.”
Decisions had been made.
However, it embedded divergences between two families which making men shoes.
As before, the whole number of shoes to be made was allocated as average, or equally among those makers. That resulted in same payment between them, despite they were fast-maker or slow-maker.
But after that meeting, the rule had changed. Those who make fast, would been allocate to those who prior on the list, and of course more shares.
There was a family making slow, which leader was with a purple birthmark on his face, they called him “Red Face”.
While there was another family making fast, which leader has a scar on his face, they called him “Scar Face”.
These two families started fighting after the made of division.
“ They have no rights to do so!” Red Face shouted, “ It’s not fair for us! And we should have more shares!”
“ WE! It’s WE who can satisfy their needs in time! Not ya slow-makers!” Scar Face yelled back.
Since then, the two families never stoped fighting and screwing until another problem merged.
The orders piled up like a mountain and the list was becoming longer and longer. Those who already paid their money and foresaw a unreasonable waiting time raged.
“ We need a spoon in the soup.” Red Face talked Scar Face, demanding their rights in the market.
“ No ya will not, by any chance.” Scar Face talked back.
“ Then screw this market, we shall all die with it.”
The two quarreled while the list was growing and growing, and people had not choice since there was not other makers could offer them men-shoes, and the two generally ignored their appeal.
“ OK, that is enough!” The one came out at last to terminate Red Face and Scar Face’s fight, since it was no longer a business competition but a screw-back contention.
“ You foolish all forget one thing,” He said while the other two still huffing, staring at each other.
“ There are still women and children out there. And split that share if you wanna, I’m sure you guys can work something more fair this time.”
“ But wot about those people who ordered men shoes? We cannot meet their orders in short terms now, and people are still paying, the list is growing everyday.” Red Face asked.
“ Just let them be,” The one states with a cold voice, “ they have no choice now but to wait. You see? The contract between us and them states not a single rule that we have to pay them back, wot we promised is just give them shoes, right? So wot are you guys worrying about?”
Red Face and Scar Face took a yes or no look at each other, and abort this nonsense fight immediately going back to their businesses.
On the market, women and children were crying for paying and being listed.
The one grimaced. Wasn’t it a happy ending?