Thursday 23 February 2012

Tourism & Debt

A German tourist walks into an Irish hotel in a village where pretty much everyone owes money to someone and they are all struggling to get by and repay their debts.  The German want to see a room before deciding to take one for the night.  He offers the hotel owner 100euros as a deposit, on the condition he gets it back if he doesn’t like the room and sets off up the stairs to look at it.
Seeing an opportunity, the hotel owner quickly runs round to the local restaurant and uses the 100 Euros to pay off some of his debt to the chef. Finding himself unexpectedly 100 Euros better off, the chef trots round to the local butcher to pay off some of his debt.
This continues from the butcher to the owner of an abattoir and on to a local prostitute, who herself owes money on rooms she has rented and finally ends up handing the money back to the hotel owner where the story started.
Just at that point, the German reappeared and, deciding he didn’t want the room, picked up his 100 Euros and left.
Nobody has any more cash, but everyone has less debt.

1 comment:

  1. This isn't a joke - I think it perfectly describes the unreal and virtual way finance works - at that level.

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