It's a slow day in Big Bayou, 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 traveling salesman from Shreveport driving through town. He stops at the hotel 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, Bubba, 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 Junior, the pig farmer.
Junior takes the $100 and heads off to pay his bill at T-Boy's Farmers 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, Chantrice, who has also been facing hard times and has had to offer her "services" on credit.
Chantrice rushes to the hotel and pays off her room bill with Bubba, the hotel owner.
Bubba then places the $100 back on the counter so the traveling 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.
The whole town is now out of debt. However, no one produced anything and no one earned anything and no one has anything left.
And that is how the United States Government is conducting business today.
