An Ingenious Plan to Pay All Debts

by Rick Ackerman

With the U.S. sinking hopelessly into a black hole of debt, and households facing an avalanche of tax hikes that will at best postpone the nation’s day of bankruptcy, we are all hard-pressed at this point to see a way to a happy ending. Lo, along comes an anonymous e-mail that describes a way to solve everyone’s debt problems painlessly. If you think the plan can work, I would urge you to forward it to your congressmen. But if you see a fatal flaw in the logic, please drop by the Rick’s Picks forum to explain. The forum can be accessed by clicking on the word “Comments” under the headline on today’s commentary. Here’s the magical plan to cure America’s”Accounts Receivable Crisis”:

“It is the month of August, on the shores of the Black Sea . It is raining, and the little town looks totally deserted. It is tough times, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit.

”Suddenly, a rich tourist comes to town.

”He enters the only hotel, lays a 100-euro note on the reception counter, and goes to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one.

”The hotel proprietor takes the 100-euro note and runs to pay his debt to the butcher.

”The butcher takes the 100-euro note and runs to pay what he owes the pig farmer.

”The pig farmer takes the 100-euro note and runs to pay his debt to his supplier of feed and fuel.
”The supplier of feed and fuel takes the 100-euro note and runs to pay his debt to the town’s prostitute that, in these hard times, proffered her ’services’ on credit.

”The prostitute take the 100-euro note and runs to the hotel to pay for the rooms she rented when she brought her clients there.

”The hotel proprietor then lays the 100-euro note back on the counter so that the rich tourist will not suspect anything.

”At that moment, the rich tourist comes down after inspecting the rooms, takes the 100-euro note off the desk, tucks it back into his wallet, and explains that he did not like any of the rooms. He then leaves town.

”No one earned a penny. However, the whole town is now without debt and looks to the future with great optimism.

”And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how the United States Government is doing business.”

Come to think of it, that is almost exactly the way Uncle Sam is handling the debt problem. Your comments are welcome at the forum.