It is a slow day in a dusty little Greek town near
Thessaloniki . The sun is beating down and the streets are
deserted. Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and
everybody lives on credit.
On this particular day a rich German tourist called Angela
Merkle' is driving through the town, stops at the local
hotel and lays a ¤100 note on the desk, telling the hotel
owner she wants to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to
pick one to spend the night.
The owner gives her some keys and, as soon as the visitor
has walked upstairs, the hotelier grabs the ¤100 note and
runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher.
The butcher takes the ¤100 note and runs down the street
to repay his debt to the pig farmer.
The pig farmer takes the ¤100 note and heads off to pay
his bill at the supplier of feed and fuel.
The guy at the Farmers' Co-op takes the ¤100 note and runs
to pay his drinks bill at the pub.
The publican slips the money along to the local prostitute
drinking at the bar, who has also been facing hard times
and has had to offer him "services" on credit.
The hooker then rushes to the hotel and pays off her room
bill to the hotel owner with the ¤100 note.
The hotel proprietor then places the ¤100 note back on the
counter so the rich traveller will not suspect anything.
At that moment the German traveller comes down the stairs,
picks up the ¤100 note, states that the rooms are not
satisfactory, pockets the money, and leaves town.
No one produced anything. No one earned anything. However,
the whole town is now out of debt and looking to the
future with a lot more optimism.
That is how the EU bailout package works!
Topic: In case you don't understand how Europe is going to bail out the Greeks... (Read 401 times)