My son, in particular, and daughter were all atwitter over their plans for a lemonade stand this summer. We live on a street that accesses a public beach, and so we have a decent amount of traffic come summer. My son, age 6 and showing signs of capitalism that would make J.P. Morgan blush, had already determined that he was going to sell lemonade for 25 cents.
I informed him that since he was going to use my property, we needed to make a concession agreement. My son immediately objected. He said that it was our property. I offered to allow him to make the mortgage payment. I told him, I would get 25 cents for every 5 quarters he made. I thought that was a fair agreement, and he agreed. I then mentioned that Mom should be compensated for her labor. She suggested he should make the lemonade himself, thus saving the labor cost. He agreed to that as well.
Later, we were chatting. He had since been working furiously on his business plan without my prompting. Anyhow, he stated that for anyone who couldn’t afford a glass of lemonade, he would give it to them for free. He said they probably wouldn’t say they couldn’t afford one, and that would keep him from giving away too much free lemonade. At the age of 6, I was quite impressed with the young boy for having a concern for the poor even if his concern on the bottom line was ever present.
I then asked him if he would offer a discount for clergy. He didn’t understand who clergy were. I gave the example of a priest. He understood that. He said we should give them a credit card. Except the credit card we would give them would have a little money on it. I got a good chuckle out of that. No clergy discount, but clergy can get a credit card.
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