Several years ago, at the request of my wife I participated in a career day at Chaparral Elementary School. Several events happened during that day that should have been a harbinger for things to come. I today look back on those events and smile and say—well of course. Kids always get it. Kids can understand action—what you do. How they value nontangible things is another matter. Reason, imagination and emotion, and language help us understand our world and what people do, but they can also be used to limit our understanding of the world and of each other. They can be used to blur cause and effect. We can design a new machine, or a new operation, or a new type of seed, but until the machine, the surgical procedure or the seed does something or grows it doesn’t mean anything. Tell a kid that you are a thinker or a writer or a politician, or a poet and they will often say “Ye, but what do you do?” Tell the kid that the Avon lady will give you free stuff and they will listen to her intently—but she better give them the free stuff, or they won’t ask her back again.
There were eight or ten people presenting to classes of around thirty third graders. The careers represented that day included firemen, policeman, airplane pilot, National guardsmen, a dentist—who brought in a large model of a set of teeth, a veterinarian—who brought in a dog, the Avon lady that I mentioned earlier, and me—I was a surgeon and brought in some surgical equipment. I think I was probably the least well received of any of the presenters because it is hard to tell and show a group of kids what a surgeon does.
But it is not just kids—adults have trouble understanding and then trying to determine the value placed on one’s work or labor. Try explaining “billable hours” or “cognitive coding” to an adult or a kid. Human capital is very difficult to quantify especially when considering concepts of productivity, efficiency, division of labor, and an individual’s contribution to the supply chain. Milton Freidman said it took about sixty separate steps to make a number 4 lead pencil. Some steps are more important than others, but if one step is missing the pencil won’t be built. What is the most important step?
So here is an example of a Q&A between a fictitious group of third graders and a so called “public servant”—we will call (I will use here traditional pronouns (he/she) a politician.
Students—“What do you do?”
Pol—“I represent “the people” who elected me to make their communities better. I allocate resources, these guys talk in code even to kids, to build roads, and schools, and pay for police and fire protection for the people who elected me”
Students—“Does that cost money?”
Pol—starts to fidget and grimace, “Yes”
Students—“Where does the money come from?”
Pol—now his/her eyes are watering, “from taxes”
Students—“Who pays for the taxes?”
Pol—takes off his coat “your mommy and daddy”
And here the students diverge into two groups
Group 1 students (G1S) state that their parents are really smart and don’t have jobs so they can receive money from the government instead of paying money to the government. Their food, rent, and health care are taken care of and over the past year they are even getting extra “Covid and stimulus” money. They receive more money by not working than they do by working.
Group 2 students (G2S) start to frown— (the politician asks to have his makeup reapplied in case there are any media in the room recording.) They then say that their parents work hard to pay taxes, and they are also paying higher property taxes, more money for gas (a Biden tax) and their health insurance premiums have doubled over the past 8 years along with co-pays and deductibles. Two of the students say that their parents lost their business during the pandemic because the government closed them down—one was a barber and the other owned her own restaurant. Other students say that they have had to forgo Little League Baseball. Another said that they had to stop going for piano lessons.
Pol—looks to the teacher and says, “Is this a charter school or are most of these kids home-schooled?”
Students— “So you get paid money, to take money from our families, give it to other families. How do you know who to give it too?
Pol “We have lobbyists who tell us how to spend the money. They have funny names like IACI, IMA/IHA CofC even the Union your teacher belongs to tells us what to do.”
Students—“Do you pay them money to tell you what to do?”
Pol—“No way. They pay me money by contributing to my election campaign and paying my way to The Governor’s Cup”
Students “So they pay you, to tell you how to vote and spend money that our parents made by working?”
Pol “Yes. I guess that is one way of looking at it”
Students “So the lobbyists pay you money to tell you how to spend money that the people that voted for you make?”
Pol “Yep”
Student from the 1st group—“Sounds like a great gig to me. Where do I sign up”?
Pol—“You don’t have to sign up for anything anymore. The government will sign you up. Just make sure you do exactly what they say to do and never ask any questions”
Student from the 2nd group. “But you don’t do anything. You take money from lobbyists, to take money from taxpayers, to give some back to schools and police and fire, but the rest of the other people want free stuff and if you don’t give it to them, they won’t vote for you!
Pol—“Yep.”
Students from the second group together—“Where’s the Avon lady? She gives us all free stuff and she isn’t even a politician”
Pol—“Last time I saw her she was at the Arid Club. Something about giving away some free stuff to my fellow politicians to make them smell better (take away the RHINO smell) before the next election comes around”
Students—“Why not just have the people reelect new politicians?”
Pol—“Because the lobbyists, PBS, and The Statesman could never let that happen. If you want to get along you should stop asking so many questions. That’s what I do and I am an expert”
Students—“An expert at what?”
Pol—“Not asking questions”
MIGA “FIGHT LIKE HELL”
