$50.00 Lesson

I’ve received this a few times via e-mail, and with one minor alteration, I thought it would be good food for thought today:

I recently asked my neighbors’ little girl what she wanted to be when she grows up. She said she wanted to be President someday.

Both of her parents, Democrats, were standing there, so I asked her, “If you were President what would be the first thing you would do?”

She replied, “I’d give food and houses to all the homeless people.”

Her parents beamed with pride.

“Wow…what a worthy goal.”  I told her, “But you don’t have to wait until you’re President to do that! You can come over to my house and mow the lawn, pull weeds, and rake my yard, and I’ll pay you $50. Then I’ll take you over to the grocery store where the homeless guy hangs out, and you can give him the $50 to use toward food and a new house. ”

She thought that over for a few seconds, then she looked me straight in the eye and asked, “Why doesn’t the homeless guy come over and do the work, and you can just pay him the $50? ”

I said, “Welcome to the Tea Party.”

Her parents still aren’t speaking to me.