Socialist Lemonade Stands? So Says Terry Savage.

(ChattahBox)—A bizarre Ayn Rand-ish rant heard ’round the world attacking a kid’s free lemonade stand as un-American and anti-capitalism, evidencing a “lack of economic responsibility” has been making the rounds of the blogoshpere this week. Terry Savage, a syndicated financial writer for the Chicago-Sun Times penned a Fourth of July screed against free lemonade stands everywhere, writing “There is no ‘free’ lemonade. In giving drink away, girls ignore rules of economics — and sum up what’s wrong with U.S.” When traveling through an upscale neighborhood over July 4th weekend, Savage was horrified to discover a group of little girls accompanied by their commie-socialist nanny operating a free lemonade stand, representing all that’s wrong with our welfare state. So, Savage proceeded to terrorize the little girls sitting on their front lawn, by lecturing them (screeching) on the finer points of capitalism:

“No!” I exclaimed from the back seat. “That’s not the spirit of giving. You can only really give when you give something you own. They’re giving away their parents’ things — the lemonade, cups, candy. It’s not theirs to give.” “I pushed the button to roll down the window and stuck my head out to set them straight.” “You must charge something for the lemonade,” I explained. “That’s the whole point of a lemonade stand. You figure out your costs — how much the lemonade costs, and the cups — and then you charge a little more than what it costs you, so you can make money. Then you can buy more stuff, and make more lemonade, and sell it and make more money.”

She wasn’t kidding.

TPJ: Not the spirit of giving? Since when is "free" not giving? By that same logic, if the kids didn't own the lemonade then is she suggesting that the kids are thieves stealing it from their parents? Or that the parents are socialists for giving the lemonade and candy to their kids for free? She's suggesting (perhaps unknowingly) by her logic that parents should charge kids for everything!! No more free hugs, no more free stories at bed time. What's wrong with all these socialist parents giving their kids a drink of free water in the middle of the night?!! Maybe next parents will start opening lines of credit for kids if they want to eat dinner. Or sending their children a bill after they turn 21!! These are the unintended consequences of this kind of half-baked thinking. This lady is taking her politics a little too seriously I think.

Isn't our society politicized enough without ambushing children and indoctrinating them into one political ideology or another? I don't think it's a good idea to have adults wandering the streets to approach kids about politics or for that matter much of anything. I thought we are supposed to teach our kids not to trust strangers but here's this lady taking it upon herself to indoctrinate random children toward a particular political and economic theory!! I wouldn't want or approve of a stranger coming up to my child trying to tell them anything political--that's for parents and trained, sanctioned teachers to do. And don't tell me she's just trying to teach them hard work because it's clear given her political and economic background, as well as code words she used that she was trying to sell a particular vein of thinking.

I just think this hyper-political environment we live in now is getting out of control when people are approaching kids trying to recruit them into some specific economic or political camp. I'm a Liberal but I'm not going to go around and teach kids lessons in the dangers of trickle down economics!! Our kids grow up too fast as it is. Their little brains aren't developed enough to tackle supply side economics versus Keynesian economics. They wanted to do something compassionate and give away free lemonade on a hot day. What's so wrong with that? Since when did being nice become socialist? God forbid we help others freely. This country is so upside down. I don't recognize it anymore.

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