fEBRUARY 18, 2015
The Norwegian salesman
Ole, the smoothest-talking Norske in the Minnesota Army National Guard – and a natural born salesman – got called up to active duty.
Ole's first assignment was in a military induction center. Because he was a good talker, they assigned him the duty of advising new recruits about government benefits, especially GI life insurance, to which they were entitled.
The officer in charge soon noticed that Ole was getting a 99 percent sign-up rate for the more expensive supplemental form of GI insurance. This was remarkable, because it cost these low-income recruits $30 per month for the higher coverage, compared to what the government was already providing at no charge. The officer decided he'd sit in the back of the room at the next briefing and observe Ole's sales pitch.
Ole stood up before the latest group of inductees and said…"If you haf da normal GI insurans an' yoo go to Afghanistan an' get yourself killed, da governmen' pays yer beneficiary $20,000. If yoo take out da supplemental insurans, vich cost you only t'irty dollars a month, den da governmen' got ta pay yer beneficiary $200,000!
"Now," Ole concluded, "vich bunch do you tink dey gonna send ta Afghanistan first?"
