The New Economy of the 21st Century

This is the scenario.

It is a slow day in the east Texas town of Longview. 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, my readers, is how the United States Government is
conducting business today.