Dateline Dayton —A friend recently passed along this story, which is worth reflecting on this morning:
Cajun Economics
It's a slow day in Mamou, Louisiana.
The sun is beating down, and the streets are deserted.
Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit.
On this particular day, a traveling Shreveport salesman is driving through town.
He stops at the Hotel Cazan and lays a hundred-dollar bill on the desk, saying he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one in which to spend the night.
As soon as the man walks upstairs, Bosco, the owner, grabs the bill and runs next door to pay his debt to Boudreaux the butcher.
Boudreaux takes the $100 and runs down the street to retire his debt to Trosclair the pig farmer.
Trosclair takes the $100 and heads off to pay his bill at T-Boy's Farmers Co-op, the local supplier of feed and fuel.
T-Boy, at the Farmer's Co-op, takes the $100 and runs to pay his debt to the local prostitute, Clarise, who has also been facing hard times and has had to offer her “services” on credit.
Clarise rushes to the hotel and pays off her room bill with Bosco, the hotel owner.
Bosco then places the $100 back on the counter so the travelling salesman will not suspect anything.
At that moment the salesman comes down the stairs, picks up the $100 bill, states that the rooms are not satisfactory, pockets the money, and leaves town.
No one produced anything.
No one earned anything.
However, the whole town is now out of debt and now looks to the future with a lot more optimism.
And that, my friend, is how the United States government is conducting business today.
Mr. Hennessey may be contacted at pmhenn@sbcglobal.net
