This story was originally posted in 2010, it was a few years old then. The then-9-year-old will be entering college in September and the then-3-year-old is now in Middle School. There is now also a six-year old daughter to add to the mix.<\/p>\n
The kids, (my 9 year old step-son and my 3 year old son), were looking over their Halloween haul after dinner tonight.\u00a0 They spread the candy across opposite ends of the table and began to compare their favorites.\u00a0 The 3 year old took every lollipop he could; most of the time he graciously refused when offered an additional piece of chocolate by a house that thought a mere lollipop wasn\u2019t enough.\u00a0 But he knew what he wanted.\u00a0 The 9 year old is all about the chocolate bars \u2013 Snickers, Milky Way, Baby Ruth\u2026<\/p>\n
So I asked my step son if he would like to take the candy back to his mother\u2019s house.\u00a0 Why not?\u00a0 It\u2019s his candy!\u00a0 He said no, he would like to leave it at our house to enjoy over the coming weeks.\u00a0 It seems that his mother dumps all of the candy from all of the kids into one bowl and anyone is free to take what they want when they want.\u00a0 I suppose that leaves only a few bags of pretzels and boxes of milk duds at the end of a few days.\u00a0 You have to gorge yourself to get your favorites before someone else does.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s candy socialism\u201d, I cried.\u00a0 \u201cYou walked to those houses, you rang those doorbells, you picked out your favorites.\u00a0 You are free to walk through any neighborhood you want to, even the ones you know have the good candy.\u00a0 Why should you have to give your favorites to someone that didn\u2019t want to go to as many houses or go to a better area?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are a free market capitalism candy household.\u00a0 It is your candy to do as you please.\u201d<\/p>\n
My husband than chimed in, \u201cI\u2019ll be taking a few pieces of your candy from your bag.\u00a0 That\u2019s called taxes.\u00a0 I\u2019m the government.\u201d<\/p>\n
A few minutes later, in an attempt to drive home the lesson, I asked him, \u201cSo tell me, what is free market capitalism?\u201d<\/p>\n
He said, \u201cYou get to keep what you get\u201d, then he paused a minute and said, \u201cNo, you get to keep what you earn!\u201d<\/p>\n
I was so proud.<\/p>\n
Then my 3 year old walked over and offered me a snack size bag of Cheetos that he had gotten.\u00a0 \u201cHere mom, you like these.\u00a0 You don\u2019t have a candy bag.\u201d<\/p>\n
I said, \u201cThat\u2019s charitable giving and that\u2019s important too.\u201d<\/p>\n
If a 9 year old can get it, why can\u2019t the rest of the nation get it?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This story was originally posted in 2010, it was a few years old then. The then-9-year-old will be entering college in September and the then-3-year-old is now in Middle School. There is now also a six-year old daughter to add … Continue reading