Kids Learning Real World Economics

Although I think American kids (not to mention adults) eat too much junk food, I think too much government meddling is far more damaging.  In fact, part of the reason Americans are so fat is that too many of us actually believe the government when it tells us to eat lots of grains and carbs.  How's that working?

I had to cheer when I read this account of students not only refusing to eat what the federal government (elected and self-appointed) pushes on them, they are willing to go without and/or find clever ways to beat the system.  Way to go, kids!

Even young people know that you cannot centrally plan supply and demand, and that whenever government starts mandating what we eat, the human will to freedom will find ways around it: including a black market resistance movement.  Awesome!  Parents should take advantage of this opportunity as a teaching moment, a true-life civics lesson, a laboratory of market forces and of the underground economy.

This is a heart-warming story of free enterprise and hope for future generations of Americans with the wherewithal to resist the Nanny State.  Maybe parents should have their kids write letters to Mrs. Obama reminding her that she is not elected, and not even her husband has constitutional authority to interfere with local school administrations and the most private decisions of all: what we private citizens choose to eat and what we choose to feed our families.  I don't tell Mrs. Obama what to feed her children (it is certainly none of my business and way off of my radar screen).  It never dawned on me that I should care what she feeds her own kids.  Heck, I'm not even sure how many kids she has.  What they eat is just not that interesting to me.

At any rate, every Nanny State claims to be "protecting the children" when it usurps the rights of the people.  The sooner children learn to say no to overreaching government, the safer our liberties will be in the future.

That reality alone is a great lesson in practical economics for these kids!