I read somewhere recently that the world was now more than $70 trillion in debt.
Somebody added the logical comment - if the world owes all that money, who does it owe it to? Planet Zog? I suspect the Earth’s debt could be described as a “circular debt”, and it is perfectly illustrated in this very old story from the Karoo. I don’t care if you’ve heard it before. Here it is again. A traveller arrives in a little Karoo dorp one morning and books a room at the local hotel for that night.
He pays the proprietor a R200 deposit and explains that he must call on some local businesses and will be back for dinner. The proprietor is happy with that and takes the R200 round to the local butcher saying, “Here’s the two hundred bucks I owe you for that boerewors I bought.”
The butcher takes the R200 round to the mechanic and says, “Here’s the R200 I owe you for fixing my car.” The mechanic is delighted and takes the R200 round to the local barber, saying: “I still owe you R200 for cutting my two sons’ hair last week. Here’s the money.”
The barber immediately takes the money to the hotel proprietor and says, “Here’s the money to pay my bar account for last night’s beers.”
The hotel proprietor thanks him and puts the money in his till. Later the traveller returns and says he has decided not to stay after all. So the hotel proprietor kindly refunds the R200 deposit and the traveller leaves.
Now the butcher has been paid, the mechanic has been paid, the barber has been paid and the hotel proprietor has been paid, and the traveller still has his original R200 - so where did all that money come from?
It was obviously from payment of the village’s “circular debt”, and it would work just as well on a national, or even a global scale. If we all stopped buying things on credit and paid cash instead for everything we need, the world’s debt would soon disappear. Of course, we’d have to settle for second-hand stuff sometimes. If you’re afraid of what your neighbours might say if you still drive your six-year-old car rather than buying the latest model, maybe what you need is not a new car at all. Maybe you need new neighbours.
Last Laugh
A city visitor stopped in a small mining town that had a reputation as the home of violent characters who were always ready for a fight. The newcomer strolled into the local bar and was the only customer there, so he began chatting to the barman. “I love the authentic atmosphere of your bar,” he said. “You’ve captured the old frontier spirit right down to the sawdust on the floor.”
“That’s not sawdust,” said the barman. “That’s last night’s furniture.”
* "Tavern of the Seas" is a daily column written in the Cape Argus by David Biggs. Biggs can be contacted at [email protected]
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.