Once Upon A Time....

Once upon a time, not so very long ago, 

there was a Peaceful Kingdom. The 

people of this peaceful kingdom believed with all their hearts that theirs was the most wonderful kingdom in the whole wide world. 

In many ways the people who lived in the 

Peaceful Kingdom were right. They 

enjoyed a standard of living unmatched in

most of the world. They were able to have

large homes full of 60 inch high density

televisions with integrated media 

players and lavish sound systems that 

put listeners right in the orchestra pit.

There was a car in almost every garage 

and maybe an extra one or two in the 

driveway. Many of the cars were gas 

guzzlers because the peaceful kingdom 

people did not have to worry much about 

numbers on the gas pump.

Everything was pretty wonderful in the 

Peaceful Kingdom until a few bad things 

happened. 

Some of the people in the other kingdoms 

saw how well the people in the Peaceful 

Kingdom lived and wanted to live the 

same way. Some of them began to sell 

their Stuff to other people besides the 

people of the Peaceful Kingdom because 

they could get more money and have some 

of the good things that the Peaceful 

Kingdom people had.

This made prices go up in the Peaceful 

Kingdom. The Peaceful Kingdom people 

were hit with massive inflation, 

depressions, and their balance of trade 

went down so they wound up with a 

terrible National Debt. The National 

Debt ate up people's homes and caused 

Unemployment. 

Many fierce Politicians donned shining 

armour and went forth to fight the 

National Debt. Most slunk away into 

obscurity with dents in their armour, 

after terrible battles with the National 

Debt. Some of them committed political 

suicide, or went into Real Estate. 

Once in a while a particularly fierce 

politician rose to prominence when they 

seemed to be winning against the 

National Debt, but it usually turned out 

that they were secretly feeding the 

National Debt. This discovery generally 

resulted in a political bloodbath.

Then an even worse thing happened in 

the Peaceful Kingdom. There was a 

nasty massacre that hit the media like a

too-ripe tomato. Then there were more 

right afterward. The media were all 

dripping and gooey with little seeds 

everywhere. 

The fierce politicians were at each others 

throats. Some of them wanted to take 

everyone's lances away. Some wanted to 

shorten the lances and make everyone do 

extra paperwork to keep them. Some 

wanted to make everyone carry lances. 

Some wanted to put all the lances into the 

National Debt.

The idea of putting all the lances into the

National Debt became very popular with 

the Peaceful Kingdom People, so they 

passed a law to do that. The Peaceful 

Kingdom People thought that this 

solution would make the National Debt 

go away so they would be able to get their 

homes and jobs back.

The National Debt simply ate up all the 

lances and grew even bigger. It engulfed 

fierce politicians and their constituents 

alike. It took office itself and began to 

run the country. It used drones that had 

been used in other kingdoms, in the 

Peaceful Kingdom against the people 

there. It increased taxes and slashed 

budgets right and left and grew anyway.

The people of the Peaceful Kingdom 

groaned in misery. "We have become as 

poor as the worst kingdoms!" They said,

"We are nothing but slaves! The 

National Debt gobbles up our most 

beautiful maidens and handsome young 

men and fierce politicians!" 

There was not much the people of the 

Peaceful Kingdom could do because their 

lances were all gone. They tried 

attacking the National Debt with farm 

implements and rocks and sticks and even 

bags full of poop, but nothing worked.

They all had to become poor but honest 

woodcutters and shovel stuff in the 

political stables and other scatological 

stuff like that.