Maybe it’s just me, but I can’t stand when kids–typically elementary school students–embark on these little panhandling routines to beg for money from family, friends and neighbors. For example selling magazine subscriptions, or World’s Finest Chocolate, or raffle tickets, or wrapping paper, etc. Since when did begging become an activity for the middle class? Seems gauche and tacky to me.
I just paid $10 for a coupon from a co-worker, for his son’s school. It lets me get a Domino’s pizza free when I buy one–can use up to 20 times, over the next year. Forgetting that I get such coupons for free in the mail all the time anyway, this is what these stupid fundraising inevitable become–the parents do the work for their kids. I don’t want my kids going around panhandling.
One time, a few years ago, on a nice Saturday afternoon, my doorbell rang. It was some little kid, maybe 13-14 years old. Selling magazine subscriptions “to help him pay for college.” I said, “No thanks.” Incredulous, he says, “B-b-b-but, don’t you want to help me go to college?” I say, “No, not really, that’s your parents’ job.” After closing the door, I bump into my wife, who had an incredulous look on her face, as if to say, “Dang, that was kind of mean!” I’m thinking to myself,–why? why is it mean to refuse to give money to some panhandling middle-class kid?
Look, I’m all for eleemosynary giving. I support the Mises Institute and my private Catholic alma mater, for example. But should self-sustaining middle-class parents in effect have their kids ask for their education expenses from their neighbors?
5:10 pm on October 13, 2003
