the golden goose

golden goose

A person, thing, or organization that is or has the potential to earn a lot of money for a long period of time. Taken from a folk tale of a goose that would lay a golden egg once a day, but was killed by its owner because he wanted all of its gold at once. New carbon taxes have proved to be a golden goose for the government, providing a steady and much-needed source of revenue. College athletics, especially football, have always been a golden goose for universities, which earn significant sums from attendance at games and tournaments.
See also: golden, goose
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

(kill) the golden ˈgoose

(also (kill) the goose that lays the golden ˈegg/ˈeggs) (destroy) something that makes you rich, successful, etc: The government is worried that a new tax might kill the golden goose by scaring away foreign investment. The banks made vast profits from an energy trader that had become the golden goose of Wall Street.This comes from an ancient Greek story about a farmer who had a goose that laid golden eggs. The farmer thought that if he killed the goose he could get all the eggs inside. However, by killing the goose, he lost everything.
See also: golden, goose
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
See also:
  • golden goose
  • (you) silly goose
  • cook someone's goose, to
  • cook your goose
  • cook (one's) goose
  • cook goose
  • cook somebody's goose
  • cook someone's goose
  • for a coon's age
  • the old woman is plucking her goose
References in periodicals archive
They included Hansel and Gretel, The Golden Goose, The Fisherman and His Wife, and Little Red Cap.
It's a fairy tale world for students at Greenhead
He took every manuscript, letter and receipt in the Golden Goose Archives home with him.
Lost letter that inspired Kerouac discovered
The golden goose is incorruptible cop Alex Murphy (Joel Kinnaman), who is critically injured and can be rebuilt with OmniCorp technology pioneered by Dr Dennett Norton (Gary Oldman).
DVDs
The fear is that over-ordering could once again kill, if not exactly the golden goose, one of the more promising sectors of the tanker market.
PRODUCT CARRIER ORDERBOOK RAISES OVERCAPACITY CONCERN
He allows them to pluck one golden feather a day and they are filled with gratitude and plenty of gold for worldly goods, as they feed and care for the golden goose. However, their greedy mother, who is unaware that the golden goose is their father reborn and returned, decides to intervene and pluck all the goose's golden feathers at once, for fear of losing the goose and future golden feathers.
The Golden Feather, A Jakarta Tale
They will do and say whatever it takes to keep the golden goose alive.
Wind farms mar county
" The telecom sector was the golden goose which laid golden eggs.
Sibal says the golden goose died in courts
Don't impose tax on SUVs: Don't kill the golden goose. SUVs are the only segment that is growing in India.
Five things India auto industry wants from the Budget
The Grimm's Fairy Tales features about 200 stories including Tom Thumb, Rapunzel and The Golden Goose. To know more about the Grimm's Fairy Tales, click here.
Google celebrates 200th anniversary of Grimm's Fairy Tales with doodle
A handsome artisan and amateur dancer from the French sticks finds his body virtually glued to that of a haughty Parisian ballet teacher in "Hand in Hand," a contempo, dance-infused variation on the Grimm Brothers' tale of the golden goose. This third feature from actress-helmer Vaierie Donzelli ("Declaration of War") takes some risks in telling a pleasingly offbeat, melodramatic story, and while the screenplay is a bit of a mess, there's still enough here to satisfy arthouse patrons in international niche rollouts.
Hand in Hand
The point is not to kill the golden goose. If you deflate the economy and cause unemployment, you reduce tax revenue, so making it more difficult to deal with the deficit, as this government is discovering.
Much pain but no gain; views
The big plan, hatched by Humpty Dumpty himself, is to steal golden eggs from the golden goose at the top of the giant bean-stalk.
Puss in Boots: entertaining kitty not exactly on par with source material
Puss joins forces with Kitty Softpaws and Humpty Dumpty to steal the Golden Goose in Puss in Boots
CINEMA
The Golden Goose private club in Fort Smith was scheduled to have its private club and retail beer permit reinstated Nov.
Trouble for Golden Goose
She presents many well-known, and some lesser known, fairytales collected and written by the Grimm brothers in the 19th century, including Hansel and Gretel, Cinderella, Rumpelstiltskin, and The Golden Goose. Possessing all the seeming simplicity of the form, Tatar's translations are seamless and beautiful, and here and there the work is speckled with drawings by Walter Cane.
The Grimm reader; the classic tales of the Brothers Grimm