Can I run this by you?
It is a slow day in the East Texas town of Madisonville. It is raining, and the little town looks totally deserted. Times are tough, everybody is in debt and everybody lives on credit.
On this particular day a rich tourist from the East is driving through town.
He enters the only hotel in the sleepy town and lays a hundred dollar bill on the desk stating he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one to spend the night.
As soon as the man walks up the stairs, the hotel proprietor takes the hundred dollar bill and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher.
The butcher takes the $100 and runs down the street to pay his debt to the pig farmer.
The pig farmer then takes the $100 and heads off to pay his debt to the supplier of feed and fuel.
The guy at the Farmer's Co-op takes the $100 and runs to pay his debt to the local prostitute, who has also been facing hard times and has lately had to offer her "services" on credit.
The hooker runs to the hotel and pays off her debt with the $100 to the hotel proprietor, paying for the rooms that she had rented when she brought clients to that establishment.
The hotel proprietor then lays the $100 bill back on the counter so the rich traveler will not suspect anything.
At that moment the traveler from the East walks back down the stairs, after inspecting the rooms.
He picks up the $100 bill and states that the rooms are not satisfactory...... Pockets the money and walks out the door and leaves town.
No one earned anything. However the whole town is now out of debt, and looks to the future with a lot of optimism.
That, ladies and gentlemen, is how the United States Government is conducting business.
On this particular day a rich tourist from the East is driving through town.
He enters the only hotel in the sleepy town and lays a hundred dollar bill on the desk stating he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one to spend the night.
As soon as the man walks up the stairs, the hotel proprietor takes the hundred dollar bill and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher.
The butcher takes the $100 and runs down the street to pay his debt to the pig farmer.
The pig farmer then takes the $100 and heads off to pay his debt to the supplier of feed and fuel.
The guy at the Farmer's Co-op takes the $100 and runs to pay his debt to the local prostitute, who has also been facing hard times and has lately had to offer her "services" on credit.
The hooker runs to the hotel and pays off her debt with the $100 to the hotel proprietor, paying for the rooms that she had rented when she brought clients to that establishment.
The hotel proprietor then lays the $100 bill back on the counter so the rich traveler will not suspect anything.
At that moment the traveler from the East walks back down the stairs, after inspecting the rooms.
He picks up the $100 bill and states that the rooms are not satisfactory...... Pockets the money and walks out the door and leaves town.
No one earned anything. However the whole town is now out of debt, and looks to the future with a lot of optimism.
That, ladies and gentlemen, is how the United States Government is conducting business.
Views: 5
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Buddy 'Friendly' Wachenheimer on
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LET ME SAY THAT AGAIN... this is how the United States Government is conducting business.
Make sense?
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Permalink Reply by philip chudy on -
There is nothing surprising about this - it is is what money was designed for - -paying for things in advance or after the event, the promise of things which may happen, compensation for things that did not happen and many many more scenarios.
Money is nothing more than a lubricant. Financial transactions are frequently separate from actions of intrinsic worth to us as as humans. Money may be pervasive but it is actually not at the root of our behavior.
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Thank you Warren Buffet. Or, is it PT Barnum?
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Permalink Reply by philip chudy on
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It's just me at your service, Buddy.
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Permalink Reply by Harry Webber on
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The Currency One (folding money) has very little to do with the way the United States conducts business.
When the Fed was in strong hands the currency supply had something to do with our ability to back it up with more than a shrug. Out goes Greenspan, in come the ship of fools. Currency One becomes irrelevant.
What we should be concerned about is what really counts. Sovereign Risk. That controls Currency Three. ( Global Credit Standing) The US at one time had the second lowest Sovereign Risk in the world. (The Brits were #1). Life was good and we could sell our paper all around the world. And we did. We sold a lot to the Chinese. Which now has them more than a bit concerned. For the first time in our nation's history, the value of the dollar is in the hands of a foreign power. And not one that is particularly stable itself.
This hundred dollar bill is nothing to worry about. It's like being concerned about a scratch on a shingle, while the rest of the house is burning down.
http://HarryWebber.com
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Permalink Reply by philip chudy on
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To try to relate this story to my lubricant analogy - the issue is 'viscousity'. Get it too thick and the engine dont turn and get it too thin and it wears out faster.
The judgment call is - at which point is the engine going to stall completely and then the energy to get it going would be so great that it would cost more in the long run - - than thinning the oil for a while at the cost of wearing the bearings and loosing some longevity.
When it comes to society - some things are closer to breathing in an individual - - Sure you can pause a breath for a while to save air but pause just a bit too long and you are a gonner.
Miss educating 2 generations to save on the deficit and you end up with a country no one will invest in since it no longer has skills (there goes your Sovereign Risk)
The $ will loose ground the US will loose its 'blessed' advantages as time goes by for a whole slew of reasons - and you want to go down how?- with or without a parachute?
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