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$100 bill; stimulus package
Topic Started: Nov 28 2011, 08:51 PM (283 Views)
Newpianoplayer
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Senior Carp


It's a slow day in the small town of Pumphandle and the streets are deserted. Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody is living on credit.

A tourist visiting the area drives through town, stops at the motel, and lays a $100 bill on the desk saying he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs to pick one for the night.

As soon as he walks upstairs, the motel owner grabs the bill and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher.

(Stay with this.....and pay attention)

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 to his supplier, the Co-op.

The guy at the 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 hotel Owner.

(Almost done...keep reading)

The hotel proprietor then places the $100 back on the counter so the traveler will not suspect anything.

At that moment the traveler comes down the stairs, states that the rooms are not satisfactory, picks up the $100 bill and leaves.

No one produced anything. No one earned anything. However, the whole town now thinks that they are out of debt and there is a false atmosphere of optimism and glee.

And that, my friends, is how a "stimulus package" works
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Horace
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HOLY CARP!!!
Quote:
 
No one produced anything. No one earned anything. However, the whole town now thinks that they are out of debt and there is a false atmosphere of optimism and glee.


In that closed system, there was never any debt to begin with - at least not beyond the debt that would, say, exist when Bert owes Ernie 100 and Ernie owes Bert 100. A stranger could come and give Bert 100 and Bert could give it to Ernie and Ernie could give it back to Bert and Bert back to the guy, but it wouldn't be an interesting situation and the guy would have been superfluous - Bert and Ernie could just as easily have realized that there is no true debt between them.

But reality ain't such a neat closed system.
As a good person, I implore you to do as I, a good person, do. Be good. Do NOT be bad. If you see bad, end bad. End it in yourself, and end it in others. By any means necessary, the good must conquer the bad. Good people know this. Do you know this? Are you good?
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Aqua Letifer
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ZOOOOOM!
Newpianoplayer
Nov 28 2011, 08:51 PM
No one produced anything. No one earned anything. However, the whole town now thinks that they are out of debt and there is a false atmosphere of optimism and glee.

And that, my friends, is how a "stimulus package" works
There's just way too much wrong with that to even begin wanting to dissect it.
I cite irreconcilable differences.
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Mikhailoh
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If you want trouble, find yourself a redhead
Perhaps, but it's a fun read nonetheless.
Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead - Lucille Ball
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Aqua Letifer
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ZOOOOOM!
It lost me at "stay with this, and pay attention."
I cite irreconcilable differences.
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Mikhailoh
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If you want trouble, find yourself a redhead
Do they offer Curmudgeon 401 at your university? :whome:
Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead - Lucille Ball
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Axtremus
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HOLY CARP!!!
Aqua Letifer
Nov 28 2011, 10:36 PM
There's just way too much wrong with that to even begin wanting to dissect it.
Horace dissected it so you don't have to.
Good job, Horace. :)
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VPG
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Pisa-Carp
I went back and re read it and my first thought is right (I think)
Everyone is out of dept except the hotel operator. The oblgations
are gone. Now if it was a check, not cash that would be another story. When the visitor tore it up they were all out.
I'M NOT YELLING.........I'M ITALIAN...........THAT'S HOW WE TALK!


"People say that we're in a time when there are no heroes, they just don't know where to look."
Ronald Reagan, Inaugural, 1971

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jon-nyc
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Cheers
The hotel operator is out $100.
In my defense, I was left unsupervised.
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Klaus
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HOLY CARP!!!
A stimulus package is more like: Every person involved gets a fresh $100 bill, which doubles the total amount of money in the system, which thereby effectively reduces everyone's debts by 50%. So everybody got rid of half of his debts and got another $100. So it seems that stimulus packages have only winners.

Except that it is not possible that everybody has debts. For every debitor there is a creditor. The sum of all loans and all deposits must be positive (something like: the sum of the available paper money). And the creditors are the ones who suffer most.
Trifonov Fleisher Klaus Sokolov Zimmerman
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LWpianistin
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HOLY CARP!!!
The town thinks it is out of debt (to the other townsfolk mentioned) because it is. Each person chose to pay debt with that bill.
And how are you today?
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John D'Oh
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MAMIL
jon-nyc
Nov 29 2011, 07:05 AM
The hotel operator is out $100.
Yep - he gave the traveler the hooker's payment to him, despite not owing the traveler anything.

A real stimulus package would be for the hooker to pay the hotel owner in kind.
What do you mean "we", have you got a mouse in your pocket?
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JBryan
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I am the grey one
On the other hand, the hotel owner is out of debt with the butcher so he really has not lost anything and neither has anyone else. They have simply capitalized on the fact that there is really no net debt when all parties are considered. The 100 dollar bill is just a token that has been passed from debtor to creditor.
"Any man who would make an X rated movie should be forced to take his daughter to see it". - John Wayne


There is a line we cross when we go from "I will believe it when I see it" to "I will see it when I believe it".


Henry II: I marvel at you after all these years. Still like a democratic drawbridge: going down for everybody.

Eleanor: At my age there's not much traffic anymore.

From The Lion in Winter.
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Horace
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HOLY CARP!!!
jon-nyc
Nov 29 2011, 07:05 AM
The hotel operator is out $100.
No, he paid his debt, to the butcher. He's even.
As a good person, I implore you to do as I, a good person, do. Be good. Do NOT be bad. If you see bad, end bad. End it in yourself, and end it in others. By any means necessary, the good must conquer the bad. Good people know this. Do you know this? Are you good?
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Axtremus
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HOLY CARP!!!
Say, what sort of tourist would leave a $100 bill on a hotel's desk, go away doing whatever, and still expect to get his $100 back upon his return? :huh:
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VPG
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Pisa-Carp
Why not? We give Bartenders our credit cards all the time.
(At least those of us that go to bars.)
I'M NOT YELLING.........I'M ITALIAN...........THAT'S HOW WE TALK!


"People say that we're in a time when there are no heroes, they just don't know where to look."
Ronald Reagan, Inaugural, 1971

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