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J.R.Simplot: At 14, Jack, by his own account, left home after his father refused to let him attend a basketball game. His mother gave him $20 in gold coins, and he moved into a $1-a-night hotel in a nearby town. There were teachers living in the hotel who were being paid in interest-bearing scrip. Jack bought them at 50 cents on the dollar and sold them to a bank for 90 cents on the dollar.

He used this profit to buy a rifle, an old truck and either 600 or 700 hogs (accounts vary) at $1 a head. He used the rifle to shoot wild horses, which - after stripping the hides for future sale at $2 each - he mixed with potatoes and cooked on sagebrush-fueled flames. The hogs ate the result. When he sold the fattened pigs, Mr. Simplot made more than $7,000.

That gave him capital to buy farm machinery and six horses and become a potato farmer. [...] A $1 million investment in two engineers working in the basement of a dentist's office in Boise made Mr. Simplot the largest shareholder in Micron Technology Inc., a major manufacturer of computer memory chips. [...] In 1977, he and his company each paid $40,000 in penalties for failing to report income to the Internal Revenue Service, and for claiming false deductions.

Date: 2008-05-30 05:51 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] verapatskevich.livejournal.com
da, ran'she zhit' bylo prosche... voobshe rodit'sya by libo v dalekom proshlom, libo v dalekom buduschem?

Date: 2008-05-30 05:53 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] birdwatcher.livejournal.com
И так прорвемся...

Date: 2008-05-30 06:06 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sashura.livejournal.com
>There were teachers living in the hotel who were being paid in
>interest-bearing scrip
Что-то у меня слишком много вопросов... Почему учителя живут в гостинице? Что такое scrip? Это какой-то бонд? Почему учителя могли хотеть его продавать дешевле, чем мог купить банк?

Date: 2008-05-30 06:25 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] birdwatcher.livejournal.com
Так, начинается...

Date: 2008-05-30 06:31 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sashura.livejournal.com
ты хотя бы расскажи, кто такой scrip :) То, что выдает википедия, америкаснким школам совсем не подходит.

Date: 2008-05-30 06:41 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] birdwatcher.livejournal.com
Сельской школе в 1923 г. в самый раз. Тогда порядок был.

Date: 2008-05-30 08:48 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mkay422.livejournal.com
Подробности в книге Fast Food Nation.

Date: 2008-06-05 08:02 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] syarzhuk.livejournal.com
+1

Типа банк специально для поддержки предпринимателей вроде героя рассказа был открыт исключительно в часы, когда учитель должен был быть в школе?