Lemonade Stands

[R_P_A_S]

just amazing how a lil marxism goes a long way.

I was driving around the other day and I saw 3 little kids about 5 years old outside their house with a lemonade stand set up. 50 cents for a glass of lemonade!

It reminded me when I moved to the states how when I was in 5th grade my new American friends invited me over to help them with a lemonade stand. Adults seem to encourage this. and Love to see young American's out there. selling something. LOL

It like gives them a sense of pride. that at such a young age they are learning how to be responsible and managed money and business.

It just struck me as to how influential capitalism is. These kids obviously don't realize it. and their parents most likely just feel its harmless to have their kids organize a lemonade stand. But obviously to someone like us this sends out a strong negative message with everything thats wrong with this system.

What is the message that this sends out? from a communist point of view?
What are parents and society encouraging kids to do?

I'd imagine in a socialist society parents would tell their kids to knock on their neighbors doors and offered to do them a favor once a month. wow. such much better.

[RedCommieBear]

Ugh... To tell you the truth, I don't see lemonade stands as a serious impediment to the communist revolution.

And while it is true that kids are indoctrinated into communism=bad, I don't think it starts that early. I think it begins with social studies classrooms spewing nationalist garbage.

I think it's just kids pretending to be grown-ups, working at a lemonade stand. I don't remember there being any bosses of any kind, so maybe our lemonade stands were co-ops.

[Rawthentic]

RPAS, I think you are getting the wrong picture. What do you have to say about the street vendors in Mexico that sell hamburgers and tacos, or CDs and movies?

[R_P_A_S]

i don't think lemonade stands, STAND against a communist revolution LOL.
I just find it sort of funny how they are sort of to teach kids how to learn about capitalism. in a way.
thats all.

[The Advent of Anarchy]

Really I don't think a little kid would care about class struggle and such. All they want is people to buy lemonade, and the transformers/barbie toys.

[R_P_A_S]

Originally posted by [email protected] 29, 2007 12:14 am
Really I don't think a little kid would care about class struggle and such. All they want is people to buy lemonade, and the transformers/barbie toys.
no fucking shit.

you guys fail to see my point. I'm just saying how they are indoctrinate to embrace and understand the capitalist system at an early age.

just how they fucking get mcdonalds hambuger stands for xmas. with a manager tie and employee hat

[chimx]

It teaches them to be artisans! Proudhon would weep with pride.

[Genosse Kotze]

I never got to do the lemonade stand thing when I was little. My mom had it in her head that I would be abducted and put in kiddie porn movies. But if I have kids they'll be picketing the lemonade stands of the other kids! "You're using lemons grown by kids our own age! Shut it down!!!"
....Oh, I'm so proud of them already*tear* they just grow up so fast. (before they're even born in this case).

[R_P_A_S]

Originally posted by Genosse [email protected] 29, 2007 02:17 am
I never got to do the lemonade stand thing when I was little. My mom had it in her head that I would be abducted and put in kiddie porn movies. But if I have kids they'll be picketing the lemonade stands of the other kids! "You're using lemons grown by kids our own age! Shut it down!!!"
....Oh, I'm so proud of them already*tear* they just grow up so fast. (before they're even born in this case).
LMAO!!!!!!!!!

[Entrails Konfetti]

You should dress up in a mask and white and black stripes, and steal all their profits. Then if those little kids want money they'll have to work by raking leaves for a neighbour. You could even pose as a neighbour who wants their yard raked!

All you'd have to do is once you have grabbed the money, you find an ally some place to change clothes and take the mask off! Then you could go over to the stand and say "Aww what a shame, well kiddies if you need money; you can work for me-- raking leaves!" Bloody hell! You could even pay them with the money you stole from them!

This will teach the children such Marxist concepts: The polarization of the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, wage-slavery, and the nature of crime under capitalism.

[which doctor]

Hardly.

Lemonade stands for kids are just one of the few ways for very young kids to make a few dollars. They sell lemonade for really cheap, barely a profit margin, perhaps usually due to the fact that the parents make the lemonade and buy it and such. It's just little, petty, activity nothing related to capitalism.

Now, next time you pay the neighbor kid $5 to shovel the snow off your yard because your back hurts, I'll be the one calling you bourgeoisie!

[cenv]

Lemonade stands for kids are just one of the few ways for very young kids to make a few dollars. They sell lemonade for really cheap, barely a profit margin, perhaps usually due to the fact that the parents make the lemonade and buy it and such. It's just little, petty, activity nothing related to capitalism.
No. Lemonade stands are a major setting for serious class struggle! The parents usually make the lemonade for free, but the kids derive profit from it! The parents are being exploited!! Those fucking little kids are really petty-bourgeois and total class enemies! The revolution must abolish atrocities like lemonade stands and exterminate the little brats who extract surplus value from their parents, who are coerced into selling their labor power.

No mercy for the exploiters! Fight the authority!

:unsure:

PS. ...although I do think RPAS has a point. By encouraging their kids to participate in lemonade stands, parents could be inadvertently spreading bourgeois ideology. It's oversimplifying the way those kids should see businesses, and it's kind of saying "hey, look, anyone can own a business. Profit is totally cool!" Not to mention that it could possibly contribute to implanting a drive for money in the little kids. Of course, this all occurs at the unconscious level. I dunno... just some ideas.

[R_P_A_S]

lemonade will be free in a socialist society ;)

[apathy maybe]

Personally I'm inclined to agree with chimx. Proudhon would be proud (as would Benjamin R. Tucker; who translated Proudhon's What is Property? (http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/economics/proudhon/property/index.htm) from French to English).

[Janus]

These kids obviously don't realize it. and their parents most likely just feel its harmless to have their kids organize a lemonade stand. But obviously to someone like us this sends out a strong negative message with everything thats wrong with this system.

What is the message that this sends out? from a communist point of view?
What are parents and society encouraging kids to do?
Lemonade stands are more or less a microcosm of businesses and business relations. However, as far as the child is concerned, it's more of a fun and exploratory game while for the adult, it is an attempt to foster education concerning fiscal responsibility/management and learning in general.

[RedHal]

Originally posted by Voz de la Gente [email protected] 28, 2007 11:50 pm
RPAS, I think you are getting the wrong picture. What do you have to say about the street vendors in Mexico that sell hamburgers and tacos, or CDs and movies?
They have to do it out of necessity, they need to make a living. Kid's needs are provided by their parents (usually), so a lemonade stand is a fun activity.

I agree with the OP, lemonade stands are an early introduction to the "glories" of open market entrepreneurship. Of course the parents are not doing this consciously because everyone is indoctrinated with the capitalist system that they don't realise it.

[CornetJoyce]

Originally posted by apathy [email protected] 29, 2007 09:03 am
Personally I'm inclined to agree with chimx. Proudhon would be proud (as would Benjamin R. Tucker; who translated Proudhon's What is Property? (http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/economics/proudhon/property/index.htm) from French to English).
And Marx would say "ah ha! this shows that idyllic relations are torn asunder and replaced by the cash nexus, and the capitalist mode of production proceeds inexorably toward the classless society in which we will have pie in the sky and wash it down with lemonade!"