$10,000
My friend is a school teacher. Here's a talk she had with her student:
Me: Do you know who the president is?
Robert: Barack Obama. I don’t like him!!! He’s bad, bad, bad. Very bad.
M: Why?
R: He doesn’t tell people to make things cheap! Everything should be cheap! He should tell people that they better make things cheap!
M: Yeah, the economy is a big problem right now. That’s why the president has a lot of people to help him do his job, like the vice president. Do you know who the vice president is?
R: Oh!! Yes yes yes! Michelle Obama!
M: Well, Michelle Obama is important, because she’s President Obama’s wife. But she isn’t the vice president.
R: Oooh..the vice president is…Joe, Joe, Joe.
M: ha, ha. Exactly! Joe Biden. Robert, do you watch the news a lot?
R: Yes…but it’s BORING!! So boring! Put on cartoons!!
M: Well, it seems like you know a lot about government. Do you know who the Mayor of Chicago is?
R: HE IS LAZY! LAZY, LAZY, LAZY. He sits around ALL DAY LONG. He does NOTHING!!
M: Whoa…where did you hear that?
R: heh, heh, heh. I made it up. It’s just a story.
M: Well, some people might agree with your story. Let’s go back to the president. Do you know how someone becomes the president?
R: No………….wait! wait!! I do! We go downtown and we vote.
M: Exactly!!! Did you go with your parents to vote last year?
R: No…they voted through t.v.
M: Voted through T.V.?
R: Yeah, we watched T.V. and we waved to the camera and everyone cheered. I waved and made a lot of noise.
M: So, you used to like Barack Obama and now you don’t?
R: Yes, yes, yes! I liked him, and he didn’t make things cheap! Everything should be cheap!! Candy and toys!! Cheap, cheap, cheap!! And that gas thing. It should be cheap! Heh. Heh.
M: What about food? And houses? Should they be cheap?
R: No, NO! I don’t like food. Heh heh. Wait-YES! YES! YES! Food, too! Food and candy and toys.
M: So, if you don’t like how Barack Obama is handling the economy, is there someone else you’d rather have as your president?
R: Oooh, I don’t know…someone normal who would make things cheap!
M: Seems like cheap things are the most important issue for you. It's like that for a lot of people.
R: Yes, like, ten thousand dollars could make everything cheap!
M: ?? Well, Obama won’t be president forever. Do you know how long Barack Obama gets to be president? How often do we vote to elect a new president?
R: Ooooh, no. Ohhhhh. This is too hard! Too hard….ohhh. I don’t like the government. (At this point, he decided to turn his peanut butter crackers into a bus and pretend his pencil eraser was a passenger, which I feel is a pretty understandable reaction to frustrations with the government. Ha.)