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Folks, the following is not meant as a rant, just to shake your head and maybe chuckle: Understanding Europe and the Eurozone 10 men – a Greek, an Italian, a French, a Portuguese, a Spanish, a Cypriot, a Finnish, an Austrian a Dutch and a German – meet regularly for Dinner. Last week´s bill amounted to € 500, why not, it was a good meal. When it came to paying time, each paid according to their country´s contribution to the EU funds: <ul> <li> 4 guests (the Greek, the Portuguese, the Spanish and the Italian) did not pay a Cent at all. </li> <li> The man from Cyprus paid 1€. </li> <li> The French paid 5€. </li> <li> The Austrian paid 50€. </li> <li> The bloke from Finland chipped in 80€. </li> <li> The Dutch cashed out 100€. </li> <li> And the last one, the German, picked up the rest of 264€. </li> </ul> They continued to meet for Dinner during the week, and everyone seemed to be happy with this arrangement. Trouble arose, when the landlord decided to offer a 10 % rebate for the frequent guests, reducing the bill to 450€. The group decided to stay with the arrangement, as they had grown accustomed to it. The first 4 would continue to eat for free, but how about the remaining 6 guests? How could those 50€ be distributed fair and square?A quick calculation revealed, that 50€ divided by 6 makes out 8,33€, but if that amount were to be deducted from the payment, guest number 5 and 6 would get paid to have a free dinner. That solution did not find an agreement, due to the veto of the first 4 guests. The landlord suggested to split those 50€ relative to the contribution previously made and begann to calculate: <ul> <li> The man from Cyprus joined the first 4 and did not have to pay at all (100% saving). </li> <li> The French had only 3€ to pay (40% saving). </li> <li> The Austrian paid 45€ instead of 50€ (10 % saving). </li> <li> The chap from Finland paid 72€, thus also saving 10% </li> <li> The Dutch paid 90€ instead of 100€ a saving of 10% </li> <li> The German paid 239€ instead of 264€, saving 11%. </li> </ul> The 6 paying guest all saved money, and the first 4 still enjoyed their free dinner. After having left the premises, some of them had second thoughts about this new arrangement. Something was wrong! The French claimed &bdquo; I only got 2 € out of those 50€, but he got 25€“, he exclaimed, pointing at the German. That´s right, the Cypriot added, &bdquo;I only saved 1€, but he´s saving more than twenty times that amount“. &bdquo;How true“, the Austrian joined in, &bdquo;I only got 5€, and those rich Germans again get it all“. Wait a moment“, the Greek, the Portuguese, the Spanish and the Italian unanimously shouted, &bdquo;We did not get a cent out of it“, this means exploiting the poorest again“. All of a sudden, the group turned against the German, beating him up severely. The next day, the German was missing from the dinner party. The remaining 9 enjoyed their sumptuous meal without him. But when the time to pay  came, they noticed something extraordinary. All together, they did not have enough money on them to even pay only half of the bill! They probably still sit there, waiting for a miracle!
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