Credit Rings

It Came My Way By Chance

The following story comes by way of an unknown author. It was forwarded to me by a fine reader whom I know and have great respect for her insight and wisdom. The message struck as anecdotal of our current and past economic affairs. Taking privilege, it has been embellished with localism.

Credit Rings

It’s a slow day in little town eerily similar to Vancouver. It’s post Olympics and the real estate climb of 2009. The sun is hot….the downtown streets are deserted. Spending extravaganza’s have come home to roost – times are tough! Everybody is in debt and as before, everybody lives on credit.

Chance For a New Beginning

On this particular day a rich tourist is seen driving through town. He stops. As he enters the local motel office he reaches into his pocket to retreive a $100 bill which he summarily slaps down on the desk. At first glance, he appears to be one of those mysterious off shore real estate investors who knew when to fold ‘em and move on. He says, “I want to inspect the rooms upstairs and pick the best one in which to spend the night.”

Opportunity of Olympic Proportion

As soon as the traveler walks upstairs to check the rooms, the motel owner grabs the $100 bill and quickly runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher. The butcher snaps up the $100 bill and without saying goodbye to the motel owner, runs down the street to retire his debt to the pig farmer. The pig farmer, very glad to see the Butcher, quickly grabs the $100 and like the motel owner and the butcher, rushes off to pay his bill at the feed store. With the speed of lightening the clerk at the Farmer’s Co-op snatches the $100 out of the Farmer’s hand.

Turning heel, he is out the door fast on his way to pay his debt to Lucy D-light, the local lady of ill repute. She too has been facing her share of hard times but, as an understanding woman, often offered her services on credit. Her eyes said it all when she the saw Co-op clerk rush up to with a $100 in hand. Without so much as a whispered thank you, she, with one shoe on, hastily headed for the motel to pay the motel owner who also an understanding man, had let her use a room during her hard times on credit.

With her disarrayed arrival, the motel owner grabbed the $100 from her hand and quickly shooed Lucy out the door. This happened in the nick of time as he returned the $100 to the exact spot where the rich traveler had left it. It worked! The rich traveler upon his return suspected nothing.

The $100 bill had just settled on the desk as the rich traveler appeared at the door. With a harrumph, the traveler snatches up his $100 bill and states; “These rooms are not satisfactory! With that, he thrusts the $100 bill back into his pocket and leaves.

All To-Do About Optimism

The irony – no one produced anything, no one earned anything – and yet the whole town is out of debt now looking to the future with much optimism.

Suspect, dear readers, is that this is precisely how our Governments are conducting business today!