Futurestock

[on:]

I dont know if it was brought up before, I couldn't find it, but...

How come a "A small home buisness I started to fund my research", as the professor said it, is being traded in the stock market??

The obvious answer would be "He wanted to get cash", but such a small and poor company would get him next to nothing (especially him being the major stock holder). With all the beaurocracy (and I know I mis-spelled it, english is not my native language) thats going today in order to get a company to be stocked (dont know the term in english) - its probably twice as bad in the future! So why would the professor, whose supposed to be, well, a professor, would do such a time-wasting idiotic thing?

[Reply #1 on:]

Since all the shares, bar one, are owned by employees of Planet Express,I can not answer this. There would be little or no money in giving all the shares to the staff!? Now I'm confused!!

[Reply #2 on:]

Well, that might be part of the joke; after all, the shareholders meeting is supposed to be rather pathetic.

[Reply #3 on:]

I don't understand much about the stock market of today (much less the stock market of 1000 years in the future), but couldn't the Professor have paid his employees in practically worthless stock in order to pay less in actual cash (Hattie may have get ahold of her stock any number of ways, given that scenario), instead of trading his stock openly? It seems like it would be a cheap way to lower the employee pay, with little risk, as long as they don't vote you out of your position and replace you with some guy.  With a full-time bureaucrat on the payroll, it likely wouldn't take that much extra effort on the professor's part.  Oh, well, it's just my uninformed idea. Welcome to PEEL.

[Reply #4 on:]

Good point, Ranadok!
But here is another thing (and I too dont understand much about stocks, etc. so correct me if I'm wrong) - aren't stock prices go up/down according to their exchange (selling and buying them at certein prices). How could the price of the stocks go up/down just because of Fry talking? if no one bidded them at higher price?

[Reply #5 on:]

Well, the title of the episode is FUTUREstock... (ie... I'm using the tried and true "it's in the future, so we can't be sure it works the same way as today" cop-out.)

[Reply #6 on:]

The professor has always wanted an army of slaves at his disposal. With the crappy rates he's forced to pay the PE crew, they may as well be slaves. A small group it is, but he has control over yet one more thing.

[Reply #7 on:]

Regarding Ranadok's "it's the future" excuse, I kind of think that, if we're not told or shown anything to the contrary, we should assume that a certain thing or aspect of life works the same way it does now.  That's not always true, I suppose, but I think it's slightly lazy writing not to let the audiences know these things.

That said, is it possible for a corporation to use a privately owned building and spaceship?  In "The Route of All Evil," Cubert claims to have inherited these two things.

[Reply #8 on:]

My dad runs a small comapany out of his basement which is incorperated, and he owns all the stocks. It's for tax purposes, I'd imagine Planet Express has stocks for the same reason.

[Reply #9 on:]

yep, question answered. 

Thanks newhook_1

[Reply #10 on:]

besides the company could of grown over the years that the prof started it so in a scence it could have evolved into more than a home business large enough to have stocks and be well known