"Bankrupt A123", Brought something to mind.

[Rolacoy]

A couple of weeks ago some of us men were working at our church. Now this is political story so some of you will be upset, but this is in the "General Discussion". One of the men had brought his three boys and a friend of the boys. I am in charge of this building project so I told the boys that if they would dig up a bunch of bricks that were an old patio I would pay them. The boys are 8 to 12 years old.

I thought I would try to teach them something about politics. I told them that I would pay them .05 per brick if they would stack them over by the fence. I said now here is the difference between Capitalism and Socialism. If each one of you stacks your bricks in your own pile, i will pay each of you .05 per brick, this is Capitalism. If you stack all of the bricks in one pile you will split the money equally.

They were not all present when I explained the job to a couple of them at the start. The other two were off playing someplace. When I noticed that the other two were working I also told them the deal. I should have gotten them all together at one time, but it's hard to round up four boys who are playing in a large area. The first boy that I talked with wanted the whole job for himself so he would get all of the money, but one joined him in the work almost immediately. He knew the deal.

A little later they were all working, a later only two were working. My goal was to get the bricks stacked, I was busy working with the men. I re-emphasisd the difference between Capitalism and Socialism several times during the morning. I had told the other men what I had told the boys, there Dad was "with me" on the deal. We quit shortly after noon and it was time to pay. All of the bricks were stacked in one stack. The Dad and I called them together, we went over the deal again with them. As it turned out the first boy, not the oldest, had became the boss. He was always on the job, the others came and went.

His Dad and I had decided that the politics had evolved. They didn't know how many bricks they had. We showed them how to count them. There was 12 rows tall and 30 on the top. We made them do the math. And a nickel each how much money. They came up with $18.00. We decided that we would give the first boy the money A couple of weeks ago some of us men were working at our church. Now this is political so some of you will be upset, but this is in the "General Discussion". One of the men had brought his three boys and a friend of the boys. I am in charge of this building project so I told the boys that if they would dig up a bunch of bricks that were an old patio. The boys are 8 to 12 years old.

I thought I would try to teach them something about politics. I told them that I would pay them .05 per brick if they would stack them over by the fence. I said now here is the difference between Capitalism and Socialism. If each one of you stacks your bricks in your own pile, i will pay each of you .05 per brick, this is Capitalism. If you stack all of the bricks in one pile you will split the money equally.

They were not all present when I explained the job to a couple of them at the start. The other two were off playing someplace. When I noticed that the other two were working I also told them the deal. I should have gotten them all together at one time, but it's hard to round up four boys who are playing in a large area. The first boy that I talked with wanted the whole job for himself so he would get all of the money, but one joined him in the work almost immediately. He knew the deal.

A little later they were all working, a later only two were working. My goal was to get the bricks stacked, I was busy working with the men. I re-ephised the difference between Capitalism and Socialism several times during the morning. I had told the other men what I had told the boys, there Dad was "with me" on the deal. We quit shortly after noon and it was time to pay. All of the bricks were stacked in one stack. The Dad and I called them together, we went over the deal again with them. As it turned out the first boy, not the oldest, had became the boss. He was always on the job, the others came and went.

His Dad and I had decided that the politics had evolved. The Dad and I called them together so I could pay up. The first boy did most of the work so we decided to let him decide how to divide the money. They didn't know how many bricks they had. We showed them how to count the them. They had 12 rows and 30 bricks on top. They did the math and came up with 360 bricks. They didn't know how much money I owed them. They did the math and came up with $18.00, I gave the boy 10 one's and two 5's.

A variation of Socialism came forth. The boy decided that he had done most of the work and should get most of the money. He said his oldest brother did little and he would only get one dollar. I told him, now wait a minute, tomorrow you want to be friends with the other boys so you have to be fair. His Dad told me that in the end he gave one boy six dollars, himself six dollars, the other two got four each. They were all happy, went to the store and spent all of the money. Everyone was happy.

I know I didn't follow the original contract, but their Dad and I discussed it and decided that was the best way to handle the situation. Was it socialism, seems to me it was, maybe. As I understand socialism all are to share the work and rewards equally. It seems like a good idea, but it just never works out that way. Some won't do their share of the work and someone always gets to live in the big house and tell everyone else what to do.

I expect a tongue lashing from you all, but I thought it was a funny story and there are more bricks and another day for them to work.