In Australia, chartered accountants (Number 1 in Numbers) have their own magazine. In an amazing display of creativity it is called Charter .
I know this because there was a chap on the train this morning, reading a magazine that had a picture of a rather sad-looking bovine on the front. The cover story was titled A world of alternatives. For a moment I thought, maybe even hoped, that here was a story about mad cow disease, or antibiotics in milk, or growth hormones or GMOs or any of a thousand and three things that might have made me try to get a closer look.
Nope. It was about defensive assets. As it says on the website (that I actually bothered googling it should be clear evidence of my dedication, or insanity (or both)),
When sharemarkets are volatile, investors run to defensive assets. These days there are plenty of alternatives to the more traditional fixed interest and bonds.
Cows as defensive assets? Hang on, this is thrill a minute stuff. Forget Star Wars , how about a “Ring of Beef” protecting our freedom? Sub-orbital Bovine Defence platforms, maybe? ICBMs (Inter-continental ballistic moo-ers)?
But sadly, no. Scrolling down I read
There are very good reasons for investing in agriculture. As the global population grows and wealth increases, demand for food is also on the rise, especially for premium products such as red meat, dairy products and grains such as wheat.
Expect all chartered accountants of your acquaintance to be investing in defensive livestock. Bah. Can’t even get a decent steak out of it.
One evening a few years ago I was at a formal dinner. Finding myself seated next to a very pretty young woman, I naturally engaged her in conversation. “What do you do?” I asked (ever the original with chat-up lines, me). “I’m an accountant”, she replied. “But it’s crushingly tedious and dull, dull, DULL. I’m going to give it up and become an astrophysicist instead.” Pythonesque images flooded my mind. I last heard that she’s well on the way to being a
lion tamerquantum cosmologist. But she still dabbles in the occasional double-entry book-keeping. Just to pay the bills, you know.But seriously, it puts a whole new meaning on how the world views scientists. Why aren’t people more conversant with accountancy
sciencethan they are, or should be, given that accountancyscienceis important to our well-being and livelihoods? Why does accountancyscienceseem so boring and inaccessible, with so many long, impenetrable words? Why don’t accountantsscientistsfeature more often, and more realistically, in books and films? Because people would really rather read about lion tamers, that’s why.Henry, I’ve heard this whole ‘why lab lit and not accountancy lit’ thing before. There is no defense! Except to plug for everyone to be more aware of everything—which is surely no bad thing.
Jenny, you’re right, but Rihard’s post is still salutary. Whoever we are, we should occasionally ask the question “Why aren’t more people interested in [insert occupation here] when we’re so passionate about it?”
/me corrects Jenny’s lab-lit link…
I consider an investment in BEER… :-)
http://www.euromonitor.com/The_global_beer_market_a_world_of_two_halves