You are the type of person who probably suffers from a lengthy list of phobias and neuroses. Family and friends never, never, never, let you have possession of the television remote control. Today, you are likely to spend a great deal of time wandering around the downtown area trying to buy either a weathervane with a cow on top or a box of multi-colored, plastic paper clips. Be on the lookout for empty parking spaces that appear to be near the entrance to a store. You should consider shopping at stores or businesses beginning with the letter T, but do not buy any products with a serial number or product code containing the number 809161. Your preferred shopping venue is mail order catalogs. Your special symbol is the question mark (?).

As a Gray Skittery, you are ambivalent, indecisive, and uncertain. You are in a constant struggle between the forces of demand and supply, production and consumption, good and evil... and you're losing the battle. You have trouble making decisions and choosing from among the seemingly infinite number of options that you perpetually face. Your shopping experiences are inevitably confusing.

The notion that business cycles are caused by elected government leaders who manipulate the economy to achieve personal political goals, that is, to be re-elected and remain in office. The leaders stimulate the economy leading up to an election, creating a business-cycle expansion that ensures (they hope) re-election, they then induce a business-cycle contraction after the election to correct problems created by the pre-election stimulation. This explanation suggests that government is the source of business cycles are should not be allowed to implement discretionary stabilization policies.

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It's time to give up our attempts to enter the Merciless Monolithic Media Masters Cable Television Company, Inc. office and take care of other pressing business -- taxes. The next stop on our excursion through the economy is the Shady Valley City Hall, where we need to momentarily, and begrudgingly, pause so that I may pay my semi-annual property tax bill. This is the least enjoyable stop -- at least for me -- on our journey. Grumble. Grumble. Grumble.

Of course I hate to pay taxes! But, then again, who doesn't? Taxes are one of those annoying and evil necessities of life that simply can't be avoided.

Or can they? Do we have to pay taxes? A quick visit to a bookstore will produce dozens of books telling you how to avoid taxes by investing here or buying this or doing that. Better yet, if we could rid ourselves of the inefficient, bloated, incompetent, do-nothing government, then you and I wouldn't have to pay taxes. Right? We could use our hard-earned income to buy stuff that we want, rather than letting the inefficient, bloated, incompetent, do-nothing government spend it on stuff that we don't want, don't know anything about, and will never need. Right?
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-- David Sarnoff, TV pioneer

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