economics

I got into an argument with a friend of mine lasting an hour without reaching a consent. I told him a story: "a russian goes into a hotel and leaves 100$ on the counter saying that he goes upstairs to see the rooms, and if he doesn't like the rooms he will come back and take his money back. The hotel owner comes after 1 minute, sees the money ant takes it, paying the meat distributor that supplied the hotel restaurant. The meat guy pays the animal food guy that pays for his whore. All with the same 100 bill. The whore then goes to the hotel and pays for her room with the 100 bill and leaves. The russian comes back down takes the money and leaves. And thus, nothing was lost, nothing was gained, but everybody paid their debts." My friend says no this is not true, that a debt was lost somewere, that the circle is not closed etc. Who is right??? with arguments please

I'm pretty sure all debts are paid in this scenario.

All debts are paid, but the hotel is pretty much giving a free room for the whore, as they don't gain money from her.

When the bill is on the counter, it effectively still belongs to the russian since he hasn't decided to spend it yet.  So the hotel owner is actually stealing the $100 from the russian.  Everything in between is legit, but when the russian grabs his $100, it belongs to the hotel owner, so he is stealing back his own money from the owner.  So the owner basically paid his meat bill with the $100 from the whore.

If anyone owes anyone else anything, the owner owes the russian interest for borrowing his money.

>>4
Paying your bills means your customers haven't paid you?

Mooore

>>7
This was cross-posted on /lounge/ http://dis.4chan.org/read/lounge/1246514671

economics

no

>>4
that is incorrect.
remember the lady had to provide services to afford that room. the hotel owner initially gets that same $100 for free (as the russian did not choose to stay). Even if you take into account that the russian man took it back, one must remember the hotel owner got meat with that money.

In the end, the russian guy did nothing, and everyone else essentially traded services.

no physical gain, net loss of energy and time.
there is a net gain from the human perspective in terms of services, however, as you would imagine none of them would have traded their service for $100 unless they wanted something with the $100 they personally felt was worth more than the service they provided to acquire that cash (otherwise, why would they make the transactions?).

This is not really a paradox at all, it actually illustrates the essential function of money very well.
As I have stated in another comment in response to the same question, everyone desires money because all members of society agree it is always innately valuable and can thus be traded for anything, and for obvious reasons is much more efficient that directly trading goods/services in our society.

Wait, why did the russian guy come back to get the $100 bill?

>>11
he didn't like the rooms.

>>12
oh yea i misread something

How is it at all relevant he's Russian?

Who gain/lose and who doesn't:
Russian - "Lose", Leave money in reception.

Hotel owner - Gains meat for the restaurant, he pays the meat guy with left money

Meat guy - Gain, not money but he get animals. get paid for meat, pays for animals.

Animal food guy - Gain, he doesn't gain any money either but satisfaction. gets paid for animals spends it on the whore.

Whore - Depends on. no money but satisfaction(?). Get paid for sex, pays for room.

Hotel owner - Gains/lose nothing. Get paid for room, give back the money to Russian.

Russian - Hasn't gained or lost anything

Any more accurate than this can't be written.(that he's a Russian is NOT relevant, for all i care could he/her be a Japanese)

>>15
What the fuck? This is complete nonsense, you even have "Russian" listed twice. Colossal failure.

what I dont understand is why the fuck the russian took so long to come back. I mean, some dude paid some dude and some other dude fucked a whore and the whore went to pay her room and THEN the russian came back. wtf seriously

Bork! Bork! Bork!

>>5

This is correct. Essentially, the meat is acquired at the cost of the whore using a room for what I can only assume is very kinky and hot sextime.

What's happened here is everyone traded their service for one they deemed as having an equal value. They just need a universal token, the hundred dollar bill, that was acceptable to everyone, other wise nobody would have had a trading part. If not for the hundred dollar bill everyone would have owed someone 100 dollars and been owed 100 dollars by someone, so there never really was debt to begin with.