...Ag. Economics 101

Update on the man selling chickens: He's back, this time with one rooster and three hens. I could not resist stopping and asking how much for the birds. The rooster goes for 400,000 vietnamese dong, which is $25. The hens go for 300,000, about $18. Pretty expensive, I thought. I checked with a friend of mine whose family raises chickens in the countryside: 100,000 VND is all you should pay for a chicken, I was told. I guess the chicken farmer was not the country bumpkin one could take him for after all.

Anyway, I told him I thought the rooster was a nice rooster and he thought I was trying to bargain the price down. I said no, I just think it is a nice bird. He still thought I was bartering, which of course is because I speak Vietnamese about as well as a rooster. Anyway, he had to explain to me in very simple language that the reason the rooster is more expensive is that it can "marry" (dam cuoi) a lot of hens, and then gave me a fairly universal and quite vulgar illustration with his right and left hand of the act of biological reproduction, just so no doubt remained why the rooster cost more than the hen. Thanks but no thanks, I will pass on the rooster.