How the economy works
I came across this email (which has now been translated from Afrikaans) in my email inbox:
It is June in a small town in the Karoo.
It’s warm, dry and the town looks abandoned.
It is a difficult time, everyone is in debt and is living on credit.
Suddenly, a wealthy tourist arrives in the town.
The man walks into the only hotel in town and puts R100 on the reception table as a deposit.
The man walks up the stairs to look for a room he wants to stay in.
The hotel owner takes the R100 and rushes to the butcher to pay his debt.
The butcher goes to the pig farmer to settle his debt with him.
The farmer rushes with the same note to his supplier to settle his account.
This man takes the note and pays the town’s prostitute, who in the tough financial times, has provided her services on credit.
The prostitute rushes to the hotel, where she rents a room to perform her services, to pay her account.
The hotel boss takes the R100 from her and places the money on the counter.
As he does this, the tourist returns and takes back the R100, as he is not pleased with any of the rooms on offer.
He leaves the town.
No one earned anything, but the whole town paid off their debt.
