Danny's Lawn & Landscaping

Daniel [14] gave me his flier today. In the past, I received one of these from a similar boy. At the time I thought it was a great idea and something I should support. It is what Jr. Achievement is all about. It is the free enterprise in action at its early beginning. Young boys providing a service that helps others and receiving money for meeting other's needs. There cannot possible be anything wrong with that or is there? There is and I'm not going to encourage Daniel.

The boys that began that path were arrested and put in a juvenile home for criminal boys. Their business venture was the beginning of the end for those boys. What happened was basically nothing. Not one of the retirees living here hired the boys to do anything. I hired them once to put out fliers. The problem occurred because I knew where not to leave a flier. All hell broke loose and I had to tell the boys to stop. That ended the money they had been receiving from me and no one else hired them to do anything. That made the boys angry. I think they were justified to be angry. They took out their anger on the club house. That act turned them into criminals.

Daniel is going down the same path. He hasn't become disillusioned yet. He will and then there is the high probability that he will become angry. Where and how he directs that anger will determine his future.If he lived in a nurturing society, he would have a bright future. Little does he know that Code Enforcement will soon visit him. They are never encouraging. They will ask him to produce a license and when he cannot do that, he will be ordered to stop. If he doesn't, then he will be ordered to appear in court. If he doesn't do that, he will be in contempt of court and there will be a warrant for his arrest. Daniel will have a good reason to be angry. I don't want to be around when he acts out.

The bottom line: When a child provides goods or services for money, they are in the the adult domain and potentially in jeopardy. In other words, when a child has to hustle for money as do many poor kids, the legal system will not be far behind. Fortunate are the kids from families where they are free from the hustle and can focus on learning, travel and socializing. All those things that are the birth right of the upper class.