A Rainy Day in Greece

[Barker]

The rain beats down in a small Greek town. It’s cold. The streets are deserted.

Times are very tough. Everyone is miserable. They are all in debt & living on credit.

A rich German arrives at the local hotel, asks to view the rooms & puts on the desk a hundred euro note.

The owner gives him a bunch of keys & the German heads off to inspect the rooms.

The moment he’s gone round the corner, the hotelier grabs the note & runs next door to pay off his debt to the butcher.

The butcher hurries down the street to pay what he owes to his feed merchant.

The merchant heads for the local bar & pays off his bar bill.

The bar owner slips the note to the local hooker who’s been offering her services on credit.

She rushes over to the hotel to pay what she owes for the room hire.

As she puts the hundred euro note on the counter the German appears, says the rooms are unsuitable, picks up his hundred euro note and leaves town.

No-one did any work; no-one earned anything. ...But all are now happy and out of debt....

[Mich the Tester]

The rain beats down in a small Greek town. It’s cold.

Sure.

weather forecast Greece - Overview - WeatherOnline

[mudskipper]

The rain beats down in a small Greek town. It’s cold. The streets are deserted.

Times are very tough. Everyone is miserable. They are all in debt & living on credit.

A rich German arrives at the local hotel, asks to view the rooms & puts on the desk a hundred euro note.

The owner gives him a bunch of keys & the German heads off to inspect the rooms.

The moment he’s gone round the corner, the hotelier grabs the note & runs next door to pay off his debt to the butcher.

The butcher hurries down the street to pay what he owes to his feed merchant.

The merchant heads for the local bar & pays off his bar bill.

The bar owner slips the note to the local hooker who’s been offering her services on credit.

She rushes over to the hotel to pay what she owes for the room hire.

As she puts the hundred euro note on the counter the German appears, says the rooms are unsuitable, picks up his hundred euro note and leaves town.

No-one did any work; no-one earned anything. ...But all are now happy and out of debt....

I think the hooker's business model needs some work.

[eek]

That's simply a argument for debt forgiveness / amnesty / jubilee.

It falls apart tho as instead of debt being shared across many people nowadays everyone ours money to the same small set of banks.

[Spacecadet]

No-one did any work; no-one earned anything. ...But all are now happy and out of debt....

The hooker still owes €100 to the hotel, she thinks she's paid it but the german just walked off with his own money and the hotel is still short €100 and has no idea that the hooker has given them anything.

as usual the hooker gets f**ked

[conned tractor]

You assume the hotelier owns the hotel and the butcher owns the shop. Whereas in reality they are likely to be owned by the bank. No? Who pays the mortgage, or if no mortgage the tax on just owning the property.

Also, in this circulation of money each transaction will incur some sort of tax, unless it is black market trading?

[Mich the Tester]

unless it is black market trading?

Yes, it's a story about Greece.

[Sysman]

You assume the hotelier owns the hotel and the butcher owns the shop. Whereas in reality they are likely to be owned by the bank. No? Who pays the mortgage, or if no mortgage the tax on just owning the property.

Also, in this circulation of money each transaction will incur some sort of tax, unless it is black market trading?

We explored this one in the 1990s when money was tight. In theory I should have been able to crank my veg plot into production and swap it for say meat, but if you do it on a large enough scale to survive the taxman will want his cut.

Then there were the banks. As they pressured you to reduce the size of your mortgage or overdraft, you took money out of the business to do so. The tax man saw that as income taken, and wanted his share of it.

[DaveB]

The rain beats down in a small Greek town. It’s cold. The streets are deserted.

Times are very tough. Everyone is miserable. They are all in debt & living on credit.

A rich German arrives at the local hotel, asks to view the rooms & puts on the desk a hundred euro note.

The owner gives him a bunch of keys & the German heads off to inspect the rooms.

The moment he’s gone round the corner, the hotelier grabs the note & runs next door to pay off his debt to the butcher.

The butcher hurries down the street to pay what he owes to his feed merchant.

The merchant heads for the local bar & pays off his bar bill.

The bar owner slips the note to the local hooker who’s been offering her services on credit.

She rushes over to the hotel to pay what she owes for the room hire.

As she puts the hundred euro note on the counter the German appears, says the rooms are unsuitable, picks up his hundred euro note and leaves town.

No-one did any work; no-one earned anything. ...But all are now happy and out of debt....

Almost.

She rushes over to the hotel to pay what she owes for the room hire.

As she gives the hundred euro note to the hotelier the the German appears, says the rooms are unsuitable, takes his hundred euro note from the hotelier and leaves town.

Now it works.

[Spacecadet]

Almost.

She rushes over to the hotel to pay what she owes for the room hire.

As she gives the hundred euro note to the hotelier the the German appears, says the rooms are unsuitable, takes his hundred euro note from the hotelier and leaves town.

Now it works.

the hotelier is now €100 down