“A rich tourist is driving through a town where everyone lives on debt. He stops at the motel and lays a $100 bill on the desk, saying he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one to spend the night.
“As soon as the man walks upstairs, the owner grabs the bill and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher. The butcher takes the $100 and runs down the street to retire his debt to the pig farmer. The pig farmer takes the $100 and heads off to pay his bill at 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 had to offer her ’services’ on credit. The hooker rushes to the hotel and pays off her room bill with the motel owner.
“The hotel proprietor then places the $100 back on the counter so the rich traveler will not suspect anything. At that moment the traveler comes down the stairs, picks up the $100 bill, states that the rooms are not satisfactory, pockets the money, and leaves town.
“No one produced anything. No one earned anything. However, the whole town is now out of debt and now looks to the future with a lot more optimism.
“And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how the United States government is conducting business today.”
this is the best thing I have ever read.
This is deliberately misleading. Congratulations, you figured out money gets recycled in an economy.
When that hotel owner paid the debt he owed to the pig farmer, you know what he completed (if his business runs right)? A PROFITABLE VENTURE. Same with the butcher, same with the pig farmer, and so on. In fact, the example of a low variable cost establishment such as a hotel makes the point even dumber. Tell me, what changes if the guy decides to take the room? Maybe the proprietor has to spend a few more bucks on a load of laundry. Big deal. So it’s $97 he gives to the butcher, and then they’re just $3 away from THE WAY AN ECONOMY FUNCTIONS. Wow, I wonder how that will work.
Money needs to keep moving in an economy for it to be successful. Economics is not a zero-sum game, and people who think it is are either uneducated or so blindingly stupid they need to be put down for the good of everyone. The opposite of what needs to be done is bullshit panic articles like this that make people hug their money close and bitch about how nobody produces anything.
Ponzi scheme my ass.
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