A Unhappy Traveler Stimulates Local Town Economy

It is a slow day in the small Montana town of Circle,
and the streets are deserted.

Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody is living on credit.

A rich tourist visiting the area drives through town,
stops at the motel, lays a $100 bill on the desk
and says he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs
before selecting one for the night.

1. As soon as he walks upstairs, the motel owner grabs the bill
and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher.
2. The butcher takes the $100 and runs down the street
to retire his debt to the pig farmer.
3. The pig farmer takes the $100 and heads off to pay
his bill to his supplier, the Farmer's Co-op.
4. The guy at the Farmer's 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.
5. The hooker rushes to the hotel and pays off
her room bill with the hotel owner.
6. The hotel proprietor then places the $100 back on the
counter so the rich 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 town.

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 Stimulus works