Terry Savage, columnist who hates giving away lemonade, defends herself. . .

[wndycty]

Oy vey!

Giving is great, but lemonade stand should teach entrepreneurship
Making more lemonade

July 9, 2010
BY TERRY SAVAGE Sun-Times Columnist

My recent column about teaching children how to run a lemonade stand seems to have caused quite a furor. In case you missed it, I explained to the young girls -- who were giving away their product -- that the whole idea of having a business is to figure out your costs and then set a price that gives you a profit. In fact, that's the basis of our American entrepreneurial, free-enterprise system.

I regularly write a personal finance column, explaining investing, financial planning and the economy. However, that "lemonade stand" column triggered a barrage of complaints accusing me of destroying the children's charitable spirit of giving. The e-mails I received from around the world were anything but charitable, accusing me of being Scrooge, ignorant, selfish, arrogant -- and a lot of other words I couldn't put into print.
-snip-

It's important to start teaching those financial lessons at an early age. These little girls, around age 7 or 8, are already targets of consumer marketing -- for everything from toys to videos, from fashion to food. Certainly, it's also the right time to teach them the value of the money they spend, and how difficult it is to earn it.

Whether these kids were charging money for the lemonade in order to make a profit or to give it to a charity, the lessons of working to earn the money would be memorable.

The children weren't rescuing people from the heat, since it was a temperate day. They were just looking for something to do -- and there was no one around to teach them how a lemonade stand should really work.
-snip-

http://www.suntimes.com/business/savage/2481302,CST-NWS-savage09.savagearticle

[fishwax]

1. lol -- the spirit of giving is also a lesson worth learning

and if kids are just looking for something to do, offering kindness to others isn't a bad place to start :shrug:

[alsame]

5. Exactly. nt

[closeupready]

31. +1000.

n/t

[DBoon]

2. I'm awaiting the advice to Linus Torvalds...

Someone should have told him the same thing about software.

Fortunately, if they did, he ignored it

[Adsos Letter]

3. Seems to me those girls will learn the sobering facts of capitalism

soon enough.
These girl's example of disinterested kindness should be considered a national treasure, a lesson everyone would benefit from.

[hlthe2b]

4. Digging her way to China, it seems...

Jeebus

[SargeUNN]

6. hope this idiot has no children

She would be a great teacher for how NOT to be.

[blondeatlast]

12. Amen to that and then some. nt

[blondeatlast]

7. Ya know, sometimes I really just wish I could kick someone's ass for being the asshole they are.

"No one to teach them how a lemonade stand should work." Millions of them fold up every summer day, so Ms. Savage is correct. :eyes:

[meegbear]

8. Yes, I wasn't being mean, they were being stupid

:crazy:

[MerryBlooms]

9. So her answer to the 'barrage of complaints'

Is to fully reinforce the fact she's an asshole. lol Man, you really can't make this stuff up.

Charity springs from the heart ... sometimes in the form of two little girls running a lemonade stand. Savage should be thankful - these little girls are part the generation who will be taking care of her sorry buttocks when she's old and dependent.

[Wickerman]

10. When Ms. Savage can teach 7 year olds how to turn a lemonade stand

into a publically traded year round company then I'll pay attention. In the meantime, she should STFU and let kids be kids.

[Hutzpa]

17. I concur to her SinTFU

it's these type of attitude that have crept into the democratic party that is going to screw us all
come November.

[gratuitous]

11. Lessons taught by yelling out a car window are seldom effective

Ms. Savage is a sorry excuse for a human being.

[guitar man]

13. If it was my kid

I would have ripped her ass off and handed it back to her in little pieces. If I want my child taught something I'll teach her myself, send her to school, hire an instructor, let her seek out a mentor or even let her learn from the school of hard knocks once in a while. But what she doesn't need is some loudmouthed yatch who has no idea of what is going on to roll up and start running her yap with unsolicited advice. Last time I checked, her kind had run this country damn near into the ground with their ideas of "the way things ought to be".

I too think it takes a village to raise a child, but it's up to the parents to seek out wisdom from the fellow villagers, not the other way around.

[EstimatedProphet]

16. Just have to say, your sig pic rocks!

[guitar man]

22. thanks!

:hi:

[guitar man]

24. delete

wrong place :crazy:

[wireman1979]

25. If it was my kid

Most parents don't seek out the village idiot for advice either! Sheesh!

[guitar man]

39. good one!!

Welcome to DU!

:hi:

[wireman1979]

32. If it was my kid

And as I parent I would not take kindly to some stranger yelling unsolicited advice out of the backseat of some strange car at my child! While it make take a village to raise a child, I have no intention of consulting with the village idiot about child rearing philosophies! She's the worst kind of "expert;" she has a bully pulpit and isn't afraid to use it...but then again, if she is not above yelling crap out of the backseat of a car she doesn't really need her bully pulpit...she'll open her yap anywhere. All of her back slapping of herself in her column about all she does for women and girls belies the basic truths that were exposed here...she's just an unpleasant person. I wouldn't let her walk my pet snake. She'd probably eat him.

[Javaman]

14. Terry needs to get her financial head out of her ass.

"there was no one around to teach them how a lemonade stand should really work."

Should they come with capitalist instructions now?

Nothing worse than a person so buried in their own narrow world that they are unable to see the bigger picture.

I will say it again, she's a sad little woman.

[Doctor_J]

15. What a filthy piece of shit

must be tired of underpaid newspaper work and tying for a Fox "News" gig. People like her are a cancer on the world.

[Hutzpa]

18. I know Pull yourself up by the bootstrap

yeah thats the attitude, It is the republican way of life?

:puke:

[blondeatlast]

20. We know this how?

I don't understand your post at all.

[Hutzpa]

23. The kids where there helping others

and her attitude is not help others, they (kids) should instead sell their lemonades.

So basically if the homeless comes along and asked for free lemonade they should refuse
them lemonade but instead sell it to them for a price.

Nice!

[blondeatlast]

28. I still don't get the Democrats reference? I know what happened, I read the original

article.

How do you know Savage is a Democrat? :shrug:

[Hutzpa]

33. Yeah

I see what you mean, brain was racing down from mountain top removal.

Edited my post, thank you.

[blondeatlast]

35. No worries. nt

[Contrary1]

19. "Giving is great..."

As long as you're a millionaire who can write it off their taxes. God forbid anyone else ever give just to be kind, or to share because it feels good to do so.

Yep, that's a Republicon alright.

[Uncle Joe]

21. There seems to be some conflict between her two columns

"The children weren't rescuing people from the heat, since it was a temperate day. They were just looking for something to do -- and there was no one around to teach them how a lemonade stand should really work."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8703835

Last week, I was in a car with my brother and his fiancee, driving through their upscale neighborhood on a hot summer day. At the corner, we all noticed three little girls sitting at a homemade lemonade stand.

<snip>


The three young girls -- under the watchful eye of a nanny, sitting on the grass with them -- explained that they had regular lemonade, raspberry lemonade, and small chocolate candy bars.

Thanks for the thread, wndycty.

[skypilot]

27. She's making it up as she goes along.

Just like she made the whole thing up to begin with. This was all a piece of fiction that she concocted to accompany the usual right-wing talking point against "handouts". But now she was supposedly trying to prepare them for and protect them against "consumer marketing" or some other bullshit. This woman is revolting. I'm glad that people from around the world gave her shit. How stupid do you have to be to conduct yourself like such a jackass or to concoct a story where you portray yourself as one.

[guitar man]

26. Just emailed her

subject: You Still Don't Get It

When you happened upon the lemonade stand, you had no idea of what purpose that particular stand was supposed to serve. Maybe the children's parents wanted to teach a lesson about kindness and charity rather than money. Believe it or not, not everything in the world is about money. Maybe it is to someone like you, but not all of us. But no, you decided what the children's lemonade stand "should be about" all on your own and decided to roll the window down and shout unsolicited advice to someone else's children, and now when people call you out on your ignorance, you just spew more arrogant BS.

I am a parent and if I want my child to be taught something, I'll send her to school, hire an instructor, teach her myself and yes, I'll even let her learn from the school of hard knocks sometimes. I also believe that "it takes a village to raise a child",but I also believe it is up to the child's parents (and the child when old enough) to seek wisdom from one's fellow villagers, not the other way around,

And yes I'm teaching her about money and finance. At 4 1/2 years old, she saw something on a tv commercial she wants and I told her if she wants it she can work for it and gave her a list of chores to do to earn the money to get it. I looked at what it is she wants and I think it's hardly worth the $20 they want for it, not even half of that. But, that's another lesson for her to learn and rather than shout her down over it, I'm going to let her learn it.

LM

Tulsa, OK

[pinboy3niner]

29. Very well done!

The intended lesson of the day may very well have been simply about the value of doing good deeds. :thumbsup:

[closeupready]

34. Amen to that, Guitar Man!

:hi:

[mikeytherat]

30. Dear Ms. Savage re: "The First Rule of Holes"

mikey_the_rat

[Johonny]

36. I just read Terry Savage's op ed for free (so much for that economics lesson)

[blondeatlast]

37. So she would have been okay with it if it were a hotter, humider day? Keep digging,

Terry, and do let us watch you try to extricate yourself! :rofl:

[tanyev]

40. Maybe the girls will give her free lemonade while she's working on that hole.

[blondeatlast]

43. Wouldn't that be perfect! I hope so! nt

[Gormy Cuss]

38. Good Lord. Savage is an idiot.

These girls were giving away lemonade etc. and having fun doing it, something that Terry Scrooge can't understand.

[nadinbrzezinski]

41. Dear Ms. Savage...

Homo Economicus is a figment of our imagination and Neo Classical Economics. Go back to school, preferably NOT at the Chicago school though.

Oh and when IN a hole, stop using the back hoe...

[TwilightGardener]

42. That's not how I remember that column--she wasn't just attacking the girls

for being charitable and not making money, she was attacking them for giving away their PARENTS' lemonade--it wasn't theirs to give, was her point (presumably to make a larger point about taxes and welfare queens, or something). What a jerky assclown.

[pinboy3niner]

44. Of course--investors MUST ALWAYS be rewarded

And, of course, a lemonade stand that digs itself into a hole obviously is, by nature, too big to fail, so losses must be socialized...

[guitar man]

45. yes and

As a parent I would find that highly offensive. How would this presumptuous , howling shrew know if I gave my children the lemonade and asked them to go out and use it for a gesture of good will among the people of the neighborhood? How dare she?

[TalkingDog]

46. Another letter to Ms. Savage

Subject: financial literacy and mortgage defaults

I have a question about today’s column:

“Many of us are lamenting that consumers did not have the financial literacy to understand those crazy mortgages they were offered,”

So when poor people default, it is because they are financially illiterate.
Then how do you explain this? Let me guess, a sound business decision.



http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/09/business/economy/09rich.html?_r=1


“Though it is hard to prove, the CoreLogic data suggest that many of the well-to-do are purposely dumping their financially draining properties, just as they would any sour investment.”


As for your treatment of the children in your initial column, you have (purposefully?) missed the only point that actually matters. If you had berated adults for something similar, many people would have called you the same names (and deservedly so) but kept it under their breath. Adults can fend for themselves. They can shout down any idiot accosting them with out of right field disapproving noises.

Children don’t have that luxury. They are unwise in the ways of the world and often take seemingly inconsequential things to heart. If you had simply chastized them, their parents could counter your ill-will by suggesting they ignore you. But in addition to your verbal bullying, you held them for mockery as little more than parasitic leeches who were wasting their parent’s precious resources, in a nationally sydicated column.

Children are not ideological pawns to be mocked for your personal and financial gain.

Your actions were cruel and thoughtlessly stupid; traits borne out by the fact that you still don’t understand why people reacted the way they did.

[depakid]

47. Expecting assholes to do anything other than dig themselves deeper into a hole

is unrealistic- and Savage proves that adage quite nicely.

[Caretha]

48. What I find so interesting about Savage

is she didn't even have the slightest clue, or suspect, or question, that she might be one of the biggest pricks of all time. She must have some very unusual karma.

[wndycty]

49. Very true

:kick:

[blondeatlast]

50. Ha! So true. nt