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 The
Richest Man in Babylon
Learning economics in California schools?...
[Larry Stirling] 3/3/06
It took three
winters in Akron after Dad returned from fighting in the south
Pacific to conclude that we were moving to California.
And until
he did so, I attended Spicer Elementary School where every
Monday morning, sitting on our desk, near the ancient inkwell
holes, was a little brown envelope containing a savings account
passbook.
Every student,
as a condition of passing each elementary school grade was
required, each week, deposit something into that envelope.
Contributor
Larry
Stirling
Larry
Stirling is a former California State Senator and Retired
Superior Court Judge [go to Stirling index] |
We were never
permitted to take anything out. I assume that my $16.25 has
long since escheated to the state of Ohio.
The Akron
Dime Bank must have spent a fortune on keeping the passbooks
of thousands of Akron Public School students current each week,
but what a public service.
That one
act taught each of those kids the basic notion of saving. For
many, it would be their only such experience.
Many years
later, as a member of the legislature, I thought of those little
pass books while listening to radical Tom Hayden inveigh against
the capitalist system and in favor of his very liberal organization "The
Campaign for Economic Democracy."
It occurred
to me that since moving to California and attending public
schools here from the fourth grade on all the way through San
Diego State University, I never heard a kind word about the
capitalist system.
"Economic
democracy?" While listening to Tom, I never quite heard
the part where they got to the democracy: you know, where people
decide what to do with their own money.
Every one
of Tom's programs featured a few people paying and Tom and
his buds deciding where the resources went.
Compare that
to the free enterprise system that assumes that people are
smart enough, given the right education and information, to
make the best decisions for themselves.
People deciding
how to spend their own money sounds pretty democratic to me,
Mr. Hayden's perverse analysis aside.
The first
bill I sponsored as a legislator provided that any expenditure
on a home repair would constitute a tax credit.
The notion
is fairly straightforward. We have a huge housing inventory
in California, much of it constructed during the 1950s and
'60s.
As houses
age, they need repairs and technological upgrades.
Encouraging
the refreshment of the housing stock through tax incentives
seemed to me as perfectly rational public policy.
Doing such
repairs would employ people and consume taxable goods resulting
in no net loss of revenues to the state.
My gosh,
you would have thought I said something bad about Karl Marx.
Hayden and his radical colleagues were aghast that I would
propose any bill that was a "tax subsidy" to the
public.
A "tax
subsidy?" The money belonged to the public in the first
place, so how could it be a subsidy?
I recently
wrote Jack O'Connell, Superintendent of State Education, asking
for an update on economic literacy education opportunities
in public schools.
We were in
the Assembly together. Jack is a fine man. I know he didn't
compose the response.
Sadly, after
reading the letter, I still don't know the opportunities for
learning the capitalist system in California schools.
But, I doubt
if Bank of California sponsors passbook accounts to teach our
students to save.
The San Diego
Rotary Club annually sponsors "Camp Enterprise" in
an effort to supplement Superintendent O'Connell's program.
It would
be great if there were more such efforts by business throughout
our state.
But if you
cannot send a child to Camp Enterprise, at least buy them a
copy of the book "The Richest Man in Babylon."
Written all
the way back in 1926, by George S. Clason, this is a book of
basic wisdom about economics that has endured for generations.
Clason was
a businessman and most famous for producing the first road
atlas for the United States and Canada.
But he is
immortal for attempting to communicate the value of the capitalistic
process in the face of so many detractors in our public-education
system.
If you are
a businessperson, you should have a constant supply of these
to hand out to any young person so they can learn something
about the most successful economic system in the history of
the world.
There are
a lot of ways to build wealth, but the simplest and easiest
it to start saving early.
I once heard
the question asked: "Why when it snows, so some people
freeze and some ski?"
The answer
of course is that some people work hard and save and other
people listen to Tom Hayden or the mayor of New Orleans and
believe the hard working people of the world owe them a living.
Our kids
shouldn't freeze when they could be among the rich in Babylon. CRO
Stirling
is a retired superior court judge who now practices law with
the firm of Garrison & McInnis. He is a former Army officer,
member of the San Diego City Council, the California State
Assembly and the State Senate. Send comments to larry.stirling@sddt.com.
Comments may be published as letters to the Editor.
copyright
2006 Larry Stirling
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