My neighbours and me....

By your own opinion, you have the best house on the street, it's a nice little bungalow with a nice garden with red and white roses. But your perfect house is on a flood plain, and every now and then you and your neighbours help each other to stem the flood waters. One day your wife says "why do we have to help the neighbours?"

"We clearly have the best house on the street!"

So you go to your neighbours and propose to them that you, by your opinion have the best house on the street and they should help YOU to save your house from the rising flood waters. Your neighbours, weren't happy about this, as they all thought your house was ok (they didn't really like them red roses though). You then said you, we'll pay you money as a sort is sweetener for their to help. Then the flood happened again, and true to their word your neighbours came out and helped you and your house to stop the flood waters and you gave them the money for their help in return. At one point the money you gave your neighbours to help you stopping the flood waters, they then got their friends to come and help and they split the money between them life was great as all their houses including your house had been saved from the floods. 

One day your wife came up to you and said "why we paying the neighbours to stop the flood waters, we clearly have the best house on the street. They should do this for free?"

So you go see your neighbours and say to them that the next time there is a flood can you come help us as by my opinion we have the best house on the street. The neighbours don't like this and neither do the neighbours friends. So eventually the flood waters come again and only you with your bucket are there trying to stop the flood waters, your wife is in your house shouting at you "YOU BETTER STOP THE FLOOD WATERS, OR ELSE!"

At this point is where we are today, your house is a bit damaged from the flood waters and the white roses are fine, the red ones are looking loopy.

But your neighbours, have found a solution to stop the flood waters, and that is to get some diggers and channel the waters into a little Stream that then goes Straight though your home and your house, the best one on the street "by your opinion" will be overwhelmed by the flood waters.

Moral to this story should be, don't listen to your wife. 

Many buckets and many hands will help holding back the water, even if you pay for that many more hands will help push it back further. Also if you go at it alone, you may not be brought to attention to how this problem can be solved, so if you don't agree to the solution you have no powers to stop it.

This is just me talking hypothetically, I don't have the answers apart from, aren't we better together?