忙碌的一天 A busy day

收到了一封轉寄來的文章，有一個很有意思的比喻來形容美國政府的財政現況，非常有趣。。。

It's a slow day in a little East Texas town.
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 rich tourist from back east is driving through town.
He stops at the motel and lays a $100 bill on the desk saying he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one to spend the night.
As soon as the man walks upstairs, the 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 at the supplier of feed and fuel.
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.
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 rich traveler will not suspect anything.
At that moment the traveler 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, ladies and gentlemen, is how the United States Government is conducting business today.

在德州東部的一個小鎮，那是個步調緩慢的一天。夕陽西斜，街道荒涼。由於時局不好，每個人都負債，而且每一個人都靠舉債度日。

就在這一天，一個從東部來的有錢旅客開車經過。他停在一家汽車旅館前，放了一張百元鈔票在櫃檯上，表示他要察看樓上的客房，以方便他選個房間過夜。

這個旅人一上樓，汽車旅館的老闆馬上抓了鈔票就往隔壁的屠戶跑去，清償他的債務。屠戶拿了那張百元鈔票，跑到下條街的養豬戶去還錢。養豬戶收了那張百元鈔票，趕緊到飼料和燃料的供應商那兒去償債。那個農夫合作社的人拿了那張百元鈔票後，跑著到本地的妓女那兒去付賬，而那個妓女也因為經濟拮据而需要靠信用來提供她的服務。妓女拿了錢就趕到旅館去，把她的房間使用費還給旅館老闆。旅館老闆收了錢，把那張百元鈔票放在櫃檯上，以免那個有錢的旅客心生懷疑。

那時，那個旅人走下樓，拿起了那張百元鈔票，表示他對客房不滿意，把鈔票收了起來離開了這個小鎮。

沒有人生產了任何東西。沒有人賺了錢。但是，這整個小鎮都不再欠債了，也因此更樂觀地面對未來。

這個，各位女士各位先生，就是今天美國政府經營的方式。