I knew when I read this story about the little girls giving away "free" lemonade and the conservative lesson from it, that liberals would go nuts. I wasn't disappointed.
The author tells the story of three little girls running a lemonade stand. When asked how much they were charging, the girls responded that it was "free."
"You must charge something for the lemonade," I explained. "That's the whole point of a lemonade stand. You figure out your costs -- how much the lemonade costs, and the cups -- and then you charge a little more than what it costs you, so you can make money. Then you can buy more stuff, and make more lemonade, and sell it and make more money."
In other words, for a conservative, a lemonade stand isn't a charity event. It's a way to teach children about entrepreneurship and running one's own business. You won't stay in business very long if you give away your goods or services for free, after all.
And then the author draws the analogy with government "free" money:
No wonder America is getting it all wrong when it comes to government, and taxes, and policy. We all act as if the "lemonade" or benefits we're "giving away" is free.
And so the voters demand more -- more subsidies for mortgages, more bailouts, more loan modification and longer periods of unemployment benefits.
They're all very nice. But these things aren't free.
The government only gets the money to pay these benefits by raising taxes, meaning taxpayers pay for the "free lemonade." Or by printing money -- which is essentially a tax on savings, since printing more money devalues the wealth we hold in dollars.
If we can't teach our kids the basics of running a lemonade stand, how can we ever teach Congress the basics of economics?
The problem here is that castigating little girls for giving away their parents' stuff is a sickness to the moonbats. As always, the best nuttiness is in the comments:
"Take THAT, kids! If we didn't have people like Savage to stop this type of behavior now, soon they'd start thinking that you have a right to not die of something simple like a tooth infection if you couldn't afford the medical bills."
"But why he would create this parable is beyond me.Surely he can't be saying that children giving away lemonade on a corner is the reason HIS generations' reckless and greedy behavior almost brought the world to its knees."
"The guy is an idiot anyhow, parents (good parents) never charge their kids for lemonade stand supplies anyhow. Those were some sweet young ladies and I would be proud to have them for my daughters."
These sorts of dumbass comments are why I typically don't argue with liberals anymore. Their concrete thought patterns and kneejerk reactions leave them with only a couple of options when presented with an argument for individual liberty:
1. Accuse the conservative of evil, heartless behavior
2. Call him/her a racist
Because the idea that the whole story is an object lesson is beyond them.
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