CONTEST TIME! "How a stimulus package works"

[Man_Kind]

The Hooker is actually Possum in drag !!!!!!!!

[Liamross]

]The flaw is there is no stimulous, nothing actually got paid, no goods or services were actually handled

[motox565]

The Hooker is actually Possum in drag !!!!!!!!

And thus, a stimulus package was born ... as the "Possum" turned "Hooker" stimulates a package.

[imretired]

I found several things wrong with this picture, but to me the most obvious was the assumption that everyone was going to pay their bills and get out of debt. In the real world (if someone was stupid enough to give the clerk $100 to view the room in the first place), out of the other participates,some would save the money ,some would spend it and others would use it to get into more debt and none of that could happen within the timeframe of examining a hotel room

[surfer]

The hotel owner is now out $100 because his balance sheet is at zero with the prostitute and he has nothing to show for it because he gave the $100 back to the potential customer.

[Baye]

The biggest flaw would be that there is no way everyone's debt was exactly $100.00!

[huffysback]

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

A tourist visiting the area drives through town, stops at the hotel, 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.

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.

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 is now out of debt and looks to the future with a lot more optimism.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how a stimulus package works

The first flaw is the motel/hotel proprietor took money to pay a debt/loan that wasn't his yet.

Second flaw is why wasn't there any interest/taxes accumulated on any of the peoples debts, what a coincidence that everyone in the town owed exactly 100 dollars even.

Third flaw the owner of the hotel/motel didn't really get his 100 dollars paid back to him, because he never really had the money to begin with, so in the end when the hooker runs to pay for her room debt, she is really paying nothing to him. Because the money wasn't his yet to pass around.

And since when does someone leave 100 bucks on the counter and then go look at a room....? You take the manager with you to look at rooms.

Debbie

[kmad14]

Not that I know for sure, but I don't think prostitutes offer their services on credit.

Secondly, if one is $100 indebted, what pays for the goods and services for which the indebted individual received $100?

Stay with me-the hotel owner is indebted, presumably, $100 to the butcher. As he receives $100 for a service to be offered, he is also incurring costs to offer the service: the utility costs to supply heat, power, water to the room to be rented as well as the cleaning services and book keeping and other time demanding services that go along with renting a room. We haven't even started discussing the other costs including any mortgage debt, insurances, or taxes that are a part of the overhead of owning just about anything. Granted, the cost charged to a customer must cover these costs with a margin for profit. When the hotel owner receives the $100 from the visitor, he still has to incur the costs of offering the service for which he is being paid.

While paying off the butcher he is going in debt to the electric, water, and gas companies, as well as the maid, accountant, bellhop and the like. This is in effect a 0-sum gain. To put another cliche' to it, he is robbing Peter to pay Paul. And while Paul might be happy for the moment, Peter will come looking for payment soon.

In all instances: the hotel owner, butcher, prostitute, etc, this would be the case. Except perhaps for the prostitute-do they pay taxes?

[rickyray]

All they did was move money around from one place to another without creating anything, sound familiar!! They didn't create any wealth because they didn't do anything, other than live beyond their means. The motel owner is a thief and in this instance was lucky that all the pieces came together as they did, otherwise anywhere down the line it all could have blownup!

[progsxr]

I didn't read the responces becouse I need to look at some houses/lots here in Hawaii so that when this RV's I know what to look for or buy..Haha....No true I'm going now....Just reading this is so funny and if the Hotel owner was the same guy looking at the room then it would be ok and everyone would be happy but in all truth the hotel owner gave the 100bucks back to the looker and by doing so gave away the hooker rent and gave his profits away.....Bad move but honest one...nice guy tho.....Aloha all and GO RV!

[Adam Montana]

What an enlightening thread! I truly enjoyed reading the comments, and some of the responses gave me a real laugh - thanks for contributing everyone!

The Most Serious Flaw is that everyone knows there are no Tourists to North Dakota

On another note, I simply can't help noticing the pun that the "prostitute is facing 'hard times' "

Ding ding!!!! This was the most popular post in the entire thread, so I'm awarding VIP to this person. Congrats, USMC!

[Darin]

What an enlightening thread! I truly enjoyed reading the comments, and some of the responses gave me a real laugh - thanks for contributing everyone!

Ding ding!!!! This was the most popular post in the entire thread, so I'm awarding VIP to this person. Congrats, USMC!

I beg to differ on the first part.

With North Dakota being just south of Canada, we have a tremendous amount of people who come from Canada to shop in N.D.

To say they do not have Tourists would be complete false.

There are also several historical places to visit within ND, many fort bases, reservations, and other history.

I can't argue the hard-times portion though.

[mlgunne]

This was sent to me via email. I get a LOT of these, obviously... I mean, over 35,000 people have my email address.

I almost responded... but then I thought it would be better if the level headed, intelligent members of DV took a crack at it!

I mean, let's be honest. I can say a lot, but as a group you can all say MUCH MORE. (That's the premise of VIP and getting a better rate to cash in, but I digress...)

So, let's have some fun with this!

Please read the following... and I implore you to find the one serious flaw in this email.

What's at stake?

A FREE VIP MEMBERSHIP FOR TWO PEOPLE.

Yep, that's right! FREE VIP.

I am going to sponsor a 3 month VIP membership to two people:

1. The highest rated response
   
2. The first person to point out what I personally think is the biggest flaw in this "theory".
   

(Yes, this is a completely biased contest that could be considered rigged... whoever plays their cards right the fastest could end up with a HUGE benefit from a free VIP membership!).

On the other hand, you also have a chance to blast a tank sized hole in the logic of whomever wrote this piece of garbage... I think we ALL win here!

WARNING!!!! This is a "Thinking Person's" contest! Ignorant, blind, bleating sheep need not apply!

Here's the email:

Have fun, and may the best and highest rated answer win!

Contest ends in 48 hours.

[KMJ]

IT APPEARS THAT THE ONLY ONE THAT GOT SCREWED WAS THE GUY AT THE Co-Op.

[Staney]

Only difference is that the government would have made a lot of additional monies off of taxes as the stimulas went through the difference hands.

[TWONS29]

The MAJOR Flaw that I can see is that No one paid the pimp, now all ya butts gonna be in trouble when big poppa comes to town unless the prostitue had some deal worked out with a local politician. Come on Adam.... you feel me on that? Oh And of course... I almost forgot to mention.... The RV hadn't happened yet so someone should of taken the 100 bucks and bought some more dinar!

[drewsully]

If you were to reverse the cycle they all had services that would of covered there debts to each other but instead of working as a town they relied on an outside source to pay the debt except the debt being said was an illusion and every one is basically in the same position that will get worse until the Town decides to work together.

[ijf]

The debt are all paid off, but nobody produced anything. So no money was earned and all the people involved have to go right back in debt to live. Money is taken out of one pocket and put in another pocket without producing anything of value

Ivanfisher@att.net

[LazySusan]

Thanks Adam!

Here's my take on it:

This email was written by someone who wishes to pander to a certain base. In this case, the person put out $100 which would be similar to our tax money going into the stimulus.

The person then got their money back. This is 100% NOT how our recent or current "stimulus" packages work!

It's a cute attempt... but anyone with half a brain can figure out that the stimulus packages we have in the US do NOT work the way this email is suggesting.

Now to award the first free VIP membership!

Amazingly enough, the very first response was pretty darn close to what I was looking for! Mississippi Gal, since you are already VIP I am going to extend your VIP membership by one month and then give the other two months to the first non-VIP person that responded with the correct answer.

Good enough for me - Welcome to VIP!!!

The next VIP goes to whomever has the post with the highest + rating in this thread by tomorrow at noon.

Tell your friends to + rep your post, encourage anyone you know to register and + rep you, or whatever you have to do! The contest will be over tomorrow.

Nice replies, everyone!!!!!

[gia]

We now live in a DEBT-based economy, worldwide.

The same thing would be accomplished if it could be calculated who owes who what and how much and cancel as much debt as possible. Some nations such as China would still come out ahead as they have a Trade Surplus. That is not even around the world because some are more productive ( Germany), save more, impose high Trade Tariffs, etc and impose trade sanctions ( China ) and some have sanctions imposed upon them ( Iran, Cuba ), etc.

Some nations ( Greece ) are bankrupt. They owe more around the world than they produce or have Net Worth. We in America are in a very dangerous position because our debt worldwide is at 95% of our GNP (?) We have to get back to work; produce products IN THE USA and provide services worldwide, which means jobs, not welfare or a ballooned government where the Public Sector is living off the Private Sector, which is what you have now... 50% of the population ( Civil Service ) depending on the taxation of the other 50% generating taxable income. And the unemployment numbers of 9% is based on the entire population, so it's really 18% of the Private Sector.... So right now 32% , a 3rd of the population is carrying the load and creating real taxable income.

My Father and my Ex's Aunt were both big believers in spending money that kept on giving. They would look at a situation and try to see how the money would keep going within the family. Part of that is giving things away or selling things within the family at a reduced rate and the money stays within the family.

That principle works in a small town, state or country, too. " Keep it in the Family" as much as possible.

[USMC_2674]

Thanks Adam!

And thanks to all those who voted for me

Semper Fidelis

[Bucko]

The time frame is a problem if the tourist came back to soon everything falls apart but the biggest flaw with this is that people dont pay their bills when they get money usually they go spend more when they get more!!

[kevnutz]

400 is the square of 20.

A circle is divided into 400 grads, which is equal to 360 degrees and 2π radians. (Degrees and radians are the SI accepted units).

400 is a self number in base 10, since there is no integer that added to the sum of its own digits results in 400. On the other hand, 400 is divisible by the sum of its own base 10 digits, making it a Harshad number.

[rope]

Thanks Adam!

And thanks to all those who voted for me

Semper Fidelis

Yes....congratulations!! I liked it too!

rope

[kcw]

The tourist just laid the $100.00 down and it was still his. The motel owner basically borrowed it (stold it). Even though the tourist got it back, the motel owner should of never taken it in the first place until it was his.