Andrei Codrescu, Editor Laura Rosenthal; Contributing Editor Rex
Rose, Andrea Garland, Webmistress Rex
Rose, Webmeister INSIDE THE CORPSE POEMS APPLE
SKULLS THE BOOK OF J AND THE GENESIS REVIVAL MOCKING
BIRD RORSCHACHS FROM RAYBURN FOUR
PHOTOS THE
MIASMA, I A
MAN MISTAKING HIS EGO FOR HIS MOTHER A
CARTOON POEM FIVE
POEMS POEM LIMA
BEAN THE
MOON IN HIDING NIETZSCHEAN ANARACHY & THE POST-MORTEM
CONDITION POEMS DRINKING COCA-COLA ON RED ARMY STREET SLEEPWALKING THE
HOT AIR MACHINE MEDIA AS CULTURE: THE STATE OF THE FIASCO WHY
WRITE ABOUT THE RROMA? SUFFER
THE LITTLE CHILDREN EDISON'S
LAST BREATH CUSTOMER CONTACT, A Reality Poem |
SUFFER
THE LITTLE CHILDREN Once upon a time, as a Fortune 500 executive, I was invited to teach in a special program for the local high schools designed to deal with "economic illiteracy". My reaction to the materials supplied was not favorable--my degree is from Chicago, but I am not an idiot--and I begged off on the grounds of insufficient time. Meaning I did not have time to take on the people who funded and wrote the program. After brooding over "economic literacy", I disposed of the issue by writing the following to my computer. The curriculum I declined included a "practice" business in which the students would play various roles in a little company making ashtrays or hot dogs, selling them to friends and relatives, keeping books, and maybe earning a profit. A realistic kids' model of our economy would include these ground rules: one kid in each class (Richie Rich) would have all of the raw materials and the exclusive right to create money (by lending it). Others would have to borrow from Richie to buy or make anything. Whenever Susie Poor's little business moved into the black, little Richie would raise his prices to her. Whenever anyone fell behind in interest payments, Richie would get back all of that person's assets. This is not fully realistic, since the kiddies would be in a welfare state situation by virtue of getting "free" food and lodging at home. If the class could somehow be isolated from the outside world and denied incentive-sapping handouts, Richie Rich could give Susie Poor the completely free and unregulated choice of performing certain acts for him in exchange for stale bread, or starving to death. (This is the Latin American version of the game, favored by the International Monetary Fund and military dictators.) Of
course Susie Poor could get a paper route and save enough money to go
to Harvard and then work real hard for Richie. He would pay her
so much money that she would get the power to make loans
and own all of the raw materials and then Richie would have to work for
her. (This is the Who's Kidding Whom? edition of the game,
favored by those who claim that most people don't know enough about economics.) |
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