Halloween 2023 is over but I hope my readers used last night as a teaching moment for their children and grandchildren.
One lesson that I hope most learned last night is that those who were willing to ring more doorbells and keep going even when they started getting tired ended up with a bigger bag of candy.
Those who put in extra effort get larger rewards and they deserve what they earned.
That was especially true last night in our neighborhood in Cincinnati as my grandchildren were out with temperatures in the high 30's, strong winds and snow coming down.
It is the first time in my lifetime that I have seen snow on Halloween.
It must be climate change.
The following blog post is one that I originally wrote in 2011. It turned out to one of the most popular posts I wrote that year.
I thought I would republish it (updated with recent numbers) for my newer readers as well as showing how much the U.S. financial condition has deteriorated over the last decade.
Trick or Treat Teaching Moment
(originally published October 29, 2012 and slightly revised with 2023 data)
Halloween is here and why should we waste such a great teaching moment for younger Americans?
Our schools all too often fill our children's heads with liberal, progressive mush. It occurs to me that we could teach them a few lessons about economics, capitalism and freedom using Snickers, Starbursts and Swizzlers.
How about a lesson on taxation? When the children bring home their candy haul on Halloween night and spread it out on the family room floor, take 40% of it away before they get their hands on it. They need to understand the burden of taxation. They need to see first hand that when they work hard they also have a "partner" that wants to share in everything they work for-GOVERNMENT. You need to explain to your child that their "partner" is always hungry. It has an insatiable appetite for taxes (and spending).
Pre-Tax Candy Haul
After-Tax Candy Haul
How about a lesson on the redistribution of wealth? One of your children doggedly rings doorbells on two additional streets after your other child calls it quits because they are tired and cold. As a result, they have 40 more pieces of candy in their bag when they get home. When you see that they have more goodies, immediately tell them that it is not fair that they have more than their sibling. They will invariably protest and say that they earned it by doing more than their sister. You then tell them that they could never eat all of that candy by themselves anyway and they are just being selfish. What is really unfair is keeping more than their fair share.
For good measure you can also point out that they did not build the sidewalk they walked on, nor the streetlights they walked under or the houses they rang the doorbells at to get the candy.
How about a lesson on regulation that would make Mayor Bloomberg proud? If your children happen to get one of those large Snickers bars instead of the little bite size ones prohibit them from eating it. It is not healthy to take in all of those calories at one time so ban the large size and mandate that they limit themselves to small sizes.
Eating the smaller size is also good for the climate.
King Size- Banned
Regular Size- Limited Availability
Enjoy the Fun Size!
On second thought, just let the children enjoy Halloween and their treats. Forget the lessons and the teaching moments.
The sad truth is that the trick is really going to be on them when they realize that they are responsible for $16 trillion $34 trillion of federal debt.
The debt being taken on is far outstripping the growth in the economy and the ultimate ability to pay the interest on that debt.
2009 2012 2023 Chg since '12
Federal Debt $10.6 trillion $15.9 trillion $33.7 trillion +17.8 trillion
Gross Domestic Product $13.9 trillion $15.6 trillion $27.1 trillion +11.5 trillion
The scariest chart I have seen this year is the one shown below.
Projected future interest payments on the federal debt based on current trends.
Where we are heading looks like everyone is going to be on a bite size diet.
Enjoy the Halloween candy. A little chocolate makes everything better!
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