CONTEST TIME! "How a stimulus package works"

[BanG]

SIGH, I truly am getting old......I cannot make up my mind...I'll just read all the other posts....lol.

[cindygreen]

Major Flaw: The hotel propreitor could have kept the $100 and had the traveler as a guest if he had inspected his rooms himself and made sure they were in tip top shape for someone to stay in. Obviously they were substandard condition and he did not do his due dilagence and make sure they were clean and acceptable for renting.

[raf181]

I see two issues:

1) Motels have rooms with doors that lead straight out to the parking area and would therefore not have an indoor upstairs for the tourist to go to initially and return from.

2) How did the tourist get in any of the rooms without a key?

Edited January 28, 2011 by raf181

[pspencer]

That my friends is called a ponzi scheme. It is what it has landed Maddoff in jail, but it is also what our government calls a "stimulus package". It is also how the governments and economys of the world, controlled by the ruling class are run and have been run that way for centuries....

[Dinarsaurus]

If the hotel owner had kept satisfactory rooms then the $100 bill would still be circulating in the town,enabling the process of credit and payment of debts to be continually repeated.That would be until the tax man come and took half of it.The other option would have been to mug the tourist on the way out.

[Dumped On Joe]

It doesn't matter how all the debits got to be exactly $100. Who knows the prostitute may have been living in the motel for the last month. It doesn't matter. What does matter is that the Tourist took the money away just as easy as he placed it in the hands of the community. Government giveth only sometimes to taketh away. The problem being no one figured out how to use the $100 long enough to have some left before the government took away what it had brought into the community. This is how Stimulus works. Put money in the hands of the people, tax income, tax sales, increase other taxes then the people owe as much to the government as it has given or in some cases such as when it raises you into a higher "tax bracket" you just might owe more.

The tourist gave, the tourist took it away. Governments give in the form of stimulus and Governments take away.

Learn to protect your Assets!!

[RoseAnn]

Why in the world would a tourist be in North Dakota and after the tour the $100 took,it was really just "dirty" money

[starlett]

Ok I'm going to take a crack at it LOL....................How the Heck did the 100 bill go around town that FAST???? Nobody could Pay there debts off and be back that Quick by the time the Traveler was done looking at the rooms!! THAT"S HOW RUMORS GET AROUND!!!!!

[jm4582]

It is a true stimulus, however only indivuals within the circle were able to gain any relief from their debts. It must be assumed that more than the identified indivuals lived in the town and all are suffering simular fears and losses from the depression. Few individuals did cancel their full $100.00 debt. The privledged fared well, the rest of the citizens continue to suffer without any relief.

jm4582

[carl-sotex]

No NEW goods or services were provided by just passing the buck.

When the RV happens we will actually spend our new money and create new business transactions for lots of other people and thus help create more new jobs and grow the economy.

[Dusti2011]

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.

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.

[caleb08]

Today is starting to be ruff. I got locked out of here and couldn't remember my password .

First the story is funny. Second I don't know anything about stimulus packages. Third I thought hotels cost more then $100 and Fourth what about the taxs on the money. Hotels do have to tax people for there rooms I bet even a hooker has to be taxed.

[HYDRANT]

EVERYONE HAD THIER DEBT PAID OFF,NO GAINS,NO PROFIT,NO LOSSES,THE ONLY WAY I CAN SEE IT THE TRAVELER IS STILL 100.00 BUCKS AHEAD-HE OWED NO ONE ANYTHING

[chipmunk]

I like your thoughts on this. I thought about adding something like this to my answer. Gotta love the IRS. I think the traveler was an undercover IRS agent who watched the entire circle from the window upstairs and documented it all for a stimulus package later to be introduced called the "Government Always Gets Theirs".

I think the biggest problem with this is a hooker rendering her "services" on credit. I can't see that happening. I think the tourist went upstairs to see the hooker. but who knows...

Edited January 28, 2011 by chipmunk

[Sonny C 2010]

Trade Deficit we alllive on credit and even thouht the tourist didnot stay the debts was all paid and no one made money. LOL what a country you have to love it period.

[tcrunner333]

Wheres the flaw? The hotel owner gamed everyone into thinking they payed for their dept and the traveler didn't lose out on his money. No flaw just a bunch of suckers.

[brgroup]

Wouldn't this situation be more like a bailout rather than a stimulus package?. With a stimulus package like said earlier there are always strings attached.

The bailout was money that was taken from somewhere, to be used for elsewhere with no monetary gain in the end. lol

[jetpilotjim]

No one gained anything from this transaction they didn't already have. It cleared ledgers but created no wealth. The stimulus package was the 100 dollar bill plus a few zeros. In the town it went from AIG to Citibank to hotel owners Freddie and Fannie, and ultimately back to the travelling tourist, your favorite uncle. A zero sum gain. Standing in a bucket and trying to lift yourself by the handle will produce the same result. Nothing from nothing leaves nothing...hey those are great lyrics maybe there is a song in there somewhere.

[HYDRANT]

ZANTAC-IF THE BILL IS 30.00 AND THE Y WHERE CHARDGED 5.00 TO MUCH=30-5=25=2 IN HER POCKET=27=1 BACK TO EACH OF THEM =30.00

[BUSHMAN]

i don,t see anything wrong with this story in fact this goes to show they are poeple who can balance there

on money, and don,t need the gov. involed. way to go american.

[Rochester]

There IS no flaw in the story. As stupid as the story sounds, that scenario is actually the way money works.

[Rimsky]

All of them, the hotel owner, the pig farmer and, yes the prostitute, had already "produced." They just didn't realize the legitimacy of their barters because their faith was in a government issued certificate of no intrinsic value - a note for repayment. Because we agree that the number of zeros on the piece of paper means (or doesn't mean) anything, it is so. It's a conjuring magic of agreement. Let's hope that we, the governments of the world, decide the zeros DO count. Or...perhaps the hotel owner should have taken his debt from the prostitute out in trade.

[profitmizer]

Just like stimulus, the whole story is based on the assumption that everyone will spend the money exactly as laid out.

[BBUL1914]

As with all stimulus packages, someone at some time WILL have to pay for it. In this case, the hotel owner was able to retire his debt to the butcher, the butcher paid his debt to the pig farmer, the pig farmer paid his to the co-op guy who paid his to the hooker. She paid hers to the hotel owner who-ooops, he ended up without the debt he was owed being paid, although he had accepted the $100 bill as payment for it. So actually, he ended up paying for the stimulus. The problem is he no longer could afford to run the hotel and it was foreclosed by the bank, which caused the hooker to move away since her place of business had closed down, causing the co-op guy to quit and leave town since he no longer had any entertainment on Saturday evening. With the co-op guy gone the pig farmer went out of business since the co-op guy was the only one who ate pork. Since the butcher had no pigs to work on, he went out of business and the whole place became a dusty ghost town. All because of a typical short sighted poorly executed stimulus plan.

[3KINGS]

THE TRAVELER WAS DONALD TRUMP,AND HE FIRED ALL OF THEM BEFORE HE LEFT TOWN