PARABLE OF MONEY

This is a post I picked up from Yahoo Groups Trustees Agents of which I am a member . . . .

It's  a slow day in the small town of Mt Oyster, TN and the streets are  deserted. Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody is living  on credit.

A  tourist visiting the area drives through town, stops at the motel 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  motel owner having the $100 bill again, and being a clever businessman  decides to give the money to the butcher for future purchases of pork  for the restaurant in the hotel.

Likewise, the butcher runs to the pig farmer so he won’t have to come up with the money when time are tough.

The pig farmer thinks that’s a great idea and runs straight to the supplier, the Co-op, and prepays for supplies.

The  supplier knows he’ll be seeing the prostitute in the near future so he  bee lines over to her place to prepay for her services.

The  prostitute, read that the new fashions are coming soon to the Slutty’r  than Thou dress shop and makes her way over there to order some new  clothes.

The  dress show owner needs a new tire on her car, so she goes to the auto  parts store and tells the owner what she needs but doesn’t have the time  to shop right now and gives him the money towards the purchase.

The  parts store owner, being a generous guy and all, puts the money to good  use by giving it to one of his employees, that he had to lay off due to  cutbacks, to do some work in the store.

The  employee, a very responsible guy, but likes to drink a little too much,  figures he had better put the money to good use, so he visits the  grocery store to stock up on supplies for next winter.

The  grocer remembers he has family visiting from out of town next month, so  he hurries over to the hotel to rent a room for his kin folk.

By  this time the traveler is making his way back down the stairs. When he  gets to the check-in counter he tells the hotel owner of the odd  behavior of the people in this town. He continues by telling him about  how the people in this apparently ‘deserted’ town are running all over  the place, back and forth, and up and down the street. He finishes by  saying this town’s a little too weird, so he picks up the $100 bill and  leaves.

Now  consider this… No one produced anything. No one earned anything.  However, the whole town has eliminated their debt and actually gained  credit towards products and/or services at a later date. There is a  false atmosphere of optimism and glee.

Now it’s time to do your homework: How much debt has this little town eliminated and how much future credit have they gained?

Now  imagine if the traveler decided to stay overnight and the money  shuffling continued for a couple more days. How much products and/or  services could have been pre-purchased if everyone in town visited  everyone else for whatever reasons? Now imagine if they did that over  and over and over and over…

It wouldn’t take long until everyone had so much ‘stuff’ prepaid for (i.e. no debt), that they wouldn’t have to ever work again.

"Those who are able to see beyond the shadows and the lies of their culture, will never be understood, let alone believed, by the masses."

  -Plato
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Posted by: Brad Haas <[email protected]>