Got this e-mail today from a friend and thought I would share it.
It's a slow day in a Mamou, Louisiana . The sun is beating down, and
the streets are deserted. Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and
everybody lives on credit.
On this particular day a travelling Shreveport salesman is driving
through town. He stops at the Hotel Cazan and lays a $100 bill on the desk
saying he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one in which to
spend the night.
As soon as the man walks upstairs, Bosco,the owner, grabs the bill and
runs next door to pay his debt to Boudreaux the butcher.
Boudreaux takes the $100 and runs down the street to retire his debt to
the Trosclair the pig farmer.
Trosclair takes the $100 and heads off to pay his bill at T-Boy’s
Farmer’s Co-op, the local supplier of feed and fuel.
T-Boy at the Farmer's Co-op takes the $100 and runs to pay his debt to
the local prostitute, Clarise, who has also been facing hard times and has
had to offer her "services" on credit.
Clarise rushes to the hotel and pays off her room bill with Bosco, the
hotel owner.
Bosco then places the $100 back on the counter so the travelling
salesman will not suspect anything.
At that moment the salesman 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, my friend, is how the United States Government is conducting
business today.