Saturday, June 08, 2013

My daughter dabbles in communism

Sometimes as I walk around the park I find change.  Usually fifty cents or so.

Yesterday my daughter was wandering around with me and saw me find a penny.  She wanted it, so I handed it to her.  I told her she could find money, too.  So we walked around looking some more and I found another penny.

This gave her an idea.  She told me that any money I found I should give to her, and she'd give me any money she found.  I told her I thought it was better to just keep what we each found but she didn't like that idea.

The next penny I saw, I casually "pointed" at it with my toe without looking at it, and she "found it" and picked it up.  I said "Yay!  Now give it to me."  She refused even though I reminded her of our deal.  A minute later she found a quarter and a penny together.  I told her she was still supposed to be giving me the money she found.

She didn't want to.  So I said I'd just keep what I found, too.

Then I started finding more change than she was.  Quickly she had a "new" idea: She would keep everything she found and I would give her everything I found.

I said I still thought it was better if we just each kept what we found.  So, she complained a little at first, but that's what we ended up doing.

She wound up with 29 cents and I had 30.

Communism appeals to 5 year-olds (and those with similar intellects) until the reality of it hits home.  Then it doesn't seem quite as appealing anymore.

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1 comment:

  1. That was an example of good parenting, Hawk!

    My mantra to young parents is, "...what you do is your stock-in-trade. They (teenagers) aren't going to listen to what you say (actually, they hear more than they allow you to think they do -- teenagers are crafty that way), but they will see how you act. How you live your life is what they will turn out to be..."

    I truck through Missouri regularly. Just north of Kansas City on I-35 is a sign for the birthplace of Jesse James. I've never stopped, don't intend to. I think it's a museum of some sort, I suppose lauding the concept of stealing from the rich and "giving" part of the proceeds to the poor.

    That would be a good example to show teenagers -- the fact that they are going to be inundated with appeals to support the redistribution of wealth. It's everywhere. Few can resist:

    “Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.”

    Frédéric Bastiat

    Sam

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