In the old days, when kings and queens wanted to start a new war or build a new palace or hold a big celebration, they would just raise the taxes on the peasants. It was selfish and indulgent but at least they made a token effort to pay for their selfish indulgence.
No such effort is made today.
Thanks to basic accounting procedures and modern fiscal practices, governments can now just run deficits and borrow money on the international markets to pay for their wars, their palaces and their state dinners.
Thursday night's opulent gala at the White House, where outgoing president Barack Obama and his wife Michelle hosted the equally young and lovely Justin Trudeau and his wife Sophie Gregoire, had no basis in reality, fiscal or otherwise.
The United States is many trillions of dollars in debt and its federal government continues to spend hundreds of billions of dollars more per year than it collects in taxes and other revenues.
Thanks to the size of its economy, America is not broke but its federal government's fiscal policy is unsustainable.
Canada is better but better next to terrible is still pretty bad.
Seen in that light, this week's state visit and dinner was little more than a party by the flamboyantly rich guy on the block thrown for his new little buddy down the street but paid for on an already maxed-out credit card.
This whole charade was a nothing more than a crude and cynical political and social exercise. When the bulk of the chatter is about how handsome these two world leaders, particularly in formal attire, are and how stylishly beautiful their spouses are, not much is going on.
Sure, there was some chatter about matters of substance, like climate change and the softwood lumber agreement but none of it mattered. Obama is in the last year of the last full-time job of his life and Trudeau is in the first months of trying to learn the ropes of the most important job he'll ever have.
The trade ministers, the forest companies and the lawyers will sort this one out, just like last time.
Politically, however, there were still gains to be made for Obama and Trudeau.
On the American side, it was all about further solidying Obama's presidential legacy, as a sophisticated man of his time, a defining force of his era, someone skilled at gathering allies to join in the endless battle against the dark forces of the world.
It was also about asking the American voting public to imagine what formal visits from important world leaders would like with the boorish Donald Trump and his latest trophy wife or the equally uncouth Ted Cruz hosting.
Hillary Clinton may not be perfect but she and Bill have been to this rodeo before and they clean up nice.
Most importantly, they are not human impersonations of Foghorn Leghorn and Yosemite Sam.
On the Canadian side, Trudeau's visit was just the latest shot from the Liberals at Stephen Harper.
A leader with substance from a country with substance receives this kind of treatment from the White House, after all.
For the broader Canadian public, the visit was a reminder of what a good idea it was to boot the grump Harper out of office in favour of someone with a sunnier disposition who has known since he was a boy which fork to use first at dinner.
And look -- OMG! -- the Americans are talking about us without mentioning hockey too much.
They think our first couple is good looking -- boy, that's awesome, eh!
What a farce.
Under Madame President Clinton, it will still be a firm no on the Keystone XL pipeline and she will not roll over on a new softwood lumber agreement, not with a low Canadian dollar and much of her base in the South, the home of so many small family-owned sawmills. She will beat Justin so bad at the negotiating table that Theresa Caputo will call, saying some French guy named Pierre keeps asking her for the pain to stop.
Hopefully everyone who got an invite enjoyed their meal Thursday. For the rest of us, there was nothing from this state visit and dinner but the bill.
