Stimulus Explained

The following was sent to my office with the title "Stimulus Explained!  Note the 2nd line from the bottom.  It makes for interesting reading, but I don't think the stimulus really works this way. 

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 his debt to the pig grower.

The pig grower takes the 100 Euro note, and runs to pay his debt to the supplier of his 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, gave her "services" on credit.

The hooker runs to the hotel, and pays off her debt with the 100 Euro Note to the hotel proprietor to pay for the rooms that 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, and takes his 100 Euro note, after saying that he did not like any of the rooms, and leaves town.

No one earned anything. However, the whole town is now without debt, and looks to the future with a lot of optimism..

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

I think a better model for explaining the stimulus is using a bucket brigade to move water from the left end of an Olympic swimming pool to the right end in order to raise the water level of the pool.  No matter how fast they pass the buckets, the volume of water in the pool isn't going to increase.  In fact, due to "sloppage"  the pool will end up with less water.

How to get along with the world

Living Near a School!

A wise old gentleman retired and purchased a modest home near a junior high school.  He spent the first few weeks of his retirement in peace and contentment. Then a new school year began. The very next afternoon three young boys, full of youthful, after-school enthusiasm, came down his street, beating merrily on every trash can they encountered.

The crashing percussion continued day after day, until finally the wise old man decided it was time to take some action. The next afternoon, he walked out to meet the young percussionists as they banged their way down the street. Stopping them, he said, "You kids are a lot of fun. I like to see you express your exuberance like that. In fact, I used to do the same thing when I was your age.  Will you do me a favor?  I'll give you each a dollar if you'll promise to come around every day and do your thing." The kids were elated and continued to do a bang-up job on the trashcans.

      

After a few days, the old-timer greeted the kids again, but this time he had a sad smile on his face.  "This recession's really putting a big dent in my income," he told them. "From now on, I'll only be able to pay you 50 cents to beat on the cans."The noisemakers were obviously displeased, but they accepted his offer and continued their afternoon ruckus.

     

A few days later, the wily retiree approached them again as they drummed their way down the street. "Look," he said, "I haven't received my Social Security check yet, so I'm not going to be able to give you more than 25 cents. Will that be okay?"

     

"A lousy quarter?" the drum leader exclaimed. "If you think we're going to waste our time, beating these cans around for a quarter, you're nuts! No way, mister. We quit!"

     

And the old man enjoyed peace and serenity for the rest of his days.

Govt Effectiveness: Health Care and Bailouts

I've had this on my computer for quite a while.  More true now than ever.

Back in 1990, the Government seized the Mustang Ranch brothel in Nevada for tax evasion and, as required by law, tried to run it. They failed and it closed. Now we are trusting the economy of our country to a pack of nit-wits who couldn't make money running a whore house and selling booze? 

And now they expect us to trust them with Health Care.  Only certifiable idiots would promote or vote for such a concept.

Where has time gone?

I've been a bit remiss in posting to this blog.  Would it suffice to say the life got in the way?  Since my last post:

1. I've made my 3rd annual pilgramage to the Grand Canyon for some much needed R&R.  See Royal Arch and The Tonto Trail: It's done! Or is it?  for my write-up of this trip.
   
2. The 2010 mid-term elections are now history.  The Congress is now split with the Republicans having a majority in the House while the Senate still belongs to the Democrats.  It's time for some good old fashioned gridlock instead of the Freeway to Hades we've had during the past two years.  See my post Degenerative & Gridlock: Are these positive or negative words for my thoughts on gridlock in Washington.
3. I have a formal complaint against me at work.  If it wasn't so time consuming, it would actually be funny.  I'll know in a day or two how it turns out.
4. I went to my Grandson's 2nd grade class as the mystery reader.  I had a lot of fun reading to 2nd graders and having lunch in the school cafeteria with his class. 
5. Halloween is over and it's almost Thanksgiving!
6. And finally, My third daughter has announced her engagement and upcoming wedding.

In reflecting on Thanksgiving, I looked through my files and found the following proclamation.  Given the current situation in the U.S., could such a proclamation be made today?

Abraham Lincoln's 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation

It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God; to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord.

Know that by His divine law, nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world. May we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people?

We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown.

But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.  Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.

A. Lincoln, October 3, 1863

Although the current President states that he is a Christian, I don't believe it and I certainly don't think that he would have the conviction to make a similar proclamation (My rationale for thinking that Obama doesn't believe or believe in Christ, 'By their works shall ye know them').