Work for Money

Lesson #2 Why Teach Financial Literacy?

Lesson #3 Mind Your own Business

Lesson #4 The History of Taxes and the Power of Corporations

Lesson #5 The Rich Invent Money

Lesson #6 Work to Learn Don't Work for Money

CHAPTER TWO

Lesson One: The Rich Don't Work For Money

"Dad, Can You Tell Me How to Get Rich?"

My dad put down the evening paper. "Why do you want to get rich, son?"

"Because today Jimmy's mom drove up in their new Cadillac, and they were going to their beach house for the weekend. He took three of his friends, but Mike and I weren't invited. They told us we weren't invited because we were `poor kids'."

"They did?" my dad asked incredulously.

"Yeah, they did." I replied in a hurt tone.

My dad silently shook his head, pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and went back to reading the paper. I stood waiting for an answer.

The year was 1956. I was 9 years old. By some twist of fate, I attended the same public school where the rich people sent their kids. We were primarily a sugar plantation town. The managers of the plantation and the other affluent people of the town, such as doctors, business owners, and bankers, sent their children to this school, grades 1 to 6. After grade 6, their children were generally sent off to private schools. Because my family lived on one side of the street, I went to this school. Had I lived on the other side of the street, I would have gone to a different school, with kid