Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for December 04, 2018

Santa will just have to raise taxes on the elves and use generic reindeer feed.

Santa has a lot of money!

Santa is a really busy guy.

I bet Santa just goes around The Home Depot or Lowe’s or somewhere in order to obtain the raw materials, Calvin.

What makes Calvin think Santa pays the elves?

Loading sixteen tons.

Another day older and deeper in debt.

You better watch out, you better not cry Better not pout, I’m telling you why Santa Claus is dead!

Because the entire polar ice-cap is one huge free port, Calvin. Of course, global warming has really shrunk Santa’s assets…

It’s a really complex money laundering operation.

In the first grade as usual, year after year.

Santa exists in a post-scarcity utopia where anything you want is available through the miracle of pattern replication. All he needs is power, which he gets from a massive array of solar collectors which is wirelessly transmitted back to the north pole using a microwave beam.

Its not going to affect you at all, Calvin. Only the good kids get the toys.

He funds his operation with magic, like all other deficit spending operations. He uses other peoples’ money.

You’ll be depending on your parents for all of your toys!

Calvin does not understand magic. He should watch The Polar Express.

Always back to the primary focus…

I dunno, Cal, but I think we’ll be finding out soon enough.

“…and then where will I be.” In 2018 staring down deficits that would crush any other country on the planet. But hey, just keep buying stuff and it’ll all be okay….right? The piper is never gonna have to be paid…right?

Santa has extensive agreements with various toy manufacturers around the world, then sends his elves to pick up the finished products.

You should see the marketing agreements St. Nick has with the toy companies. Why do you think there’s a new “hot toy” each year? High bid = sold out toy.

If Washington can do it so can Santa!

Volume; Santa does tremendous volume…

It’s a Pyramid with Elves on the bottom and Mrs. Claus working the Ponzi angle.

Who says childhood is not a good preparation for adult life? In childhood, it’s me, me, me. An adult says, _ it’s I, I, I.

“Look, Charlie Brown, we all know that Christmas is a big commercial racket. It’s run by a big eastern syndicate, you know.” Lucy to Charlie Brown in “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” First aired December 9th, 1965.

What a clever metaphor for the wastrel in the white house.

A lump of coal,and a bunch of switches for you,Calvin ;(

It’s very simple. Would you leavey our doors open at night while you sleep? No, but we let Santa into our houses through our chimneys, and while we sleep with visions of sugarplums dancing in our heads, he loots the place. The reindeer make a racket on the roof, so we don’t hear Santa. Then he quickly scarfs down the milk and cookies, and, with a merry “Ho Ho Ho”, off he goes to the next victim. QED

It’s all Chinese money.

Whatever Santa does, Toys ‘R’ Us didn’t figure it out.

[ insert political rant about [deficit spending][socialism][irrelevant topic] here ]

The only simple, straightforward and correct answer to Calvin’s question is: magic!

Ask the U.S.A. government. They will explain how to ignore insurmountable debt and live happily forever. One of their ideas is to build 3 H-Bombs for every person on earth. Another plan is to blame the other or minor Congressional party when the Collection Agency comes-a-calling.

Out of the mouth of babes

I would just bill the parents, “or next year I won’t bring them anything, and you’l have to explain”.

Even a six year old sees that deficit spending doesn’t work.

I think Santa eats Chinese food now.

Just a small reminder, St. Nicholas is also the patron saint of thieves.

The Ultimate Pymiard scheme.

He’s got a huge milk and cookie business, Calvin…

The dollar will probably have to be renamed as an OPM which is code for other people’s money. When the Santa Claus party finally regains power and everything becomes free for everybody we will eventually run out of OPM’s.

Calvin, why is it ALWAYS about you?

Maybe Santa secretly owns a megacorporation.

Santa’s good at making things. He probably prints his own money.

Santa is financed by protection money from parents of children like you. No protection money, you’re on the naughty list and no toys for you.

OMG! Does that mean Santa is a Democrat?

Working in the congressional accounting office…

Yes, where will Calvin be once the deficit spending leads to bankruptcy of Santa. Pretty deep thinking for a five year old.

Why his technology uses molecular recombination to manufacture what he needs. So he is richer than anyone can be and older too. And most of all happier.

I’m thinking 3-D printer.

Santa can maintain the deficit spending as long as Christmas mirth remains the world’s reserve currency.