It is a slow day in the small Saskatchewan town of Pumphandle and streets are deserted. Times are tough, everybody is in debt and nearly 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 hotel proprietor then places the $100 back on the counter so the 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.

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, folks, is how a Stimulus package works.