It is the month of November; a resort town sits next to the shores of a lake. It is raining, and the little town looks totally deserted. It is tough times, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit.

Suddenly, a rich tourist comes to town.

He enters the only hotel, lays a 100-dollar bill on the reception counter, and goes to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one.

The hotel proprietor takes the 100-dollar bill and runs to pay his debt to the butcher.

The butcher takes the 100-dollar bill, and runs to pay his debt to the pig farmer.

The pig farmer takes the 100-dollar bill and runs to pay his debt to his feed and fuel supplier.

The supplier of feed and fuel runs to pay his debt to the town prostitute that in these hard times “serviced” him on credit.

The hooker runs to the hotel and pays off her debt with the 100-dollar bill for the rooms she rents whilst plying her trade.

The hotel proprietor then lays the $100 dollar bill back on the counter so that the rich tourist will not suspect anything.

At that moment the rich tourist comes down and takes his 100-dollar bill and says after inspecting the rooms he didn’t like any of them and leaves town.

No one earned anything. However the whole town is now out of debt. And looking to the future with renewed optimism.

Make it billions and trillions

And that ladies and gentlemen is how the United States government is doing business today.

Perry Staley

Ironton