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Strollerderby
Irrational Exuberance in the Lunch Room
I just loved writer Joshua Bearman’s humor piece in the New York Times the other day about his horribly disadvantaged packed lunches.
The story goes that while his peers are busy trading Ding Dongs and Capri Suns, school-age Bearman has nothing to offer except a can of sardines. His dad packed him the same thing every day, telling him to stay away from the allure of sweets. Naturally, he had nothing to trade, and so no one would trade snacks with him.
Then he had a fantastic idea.
Bearman created a ledger in his Trapper Keeper, promising his peers a piece of cake at the end of the year, if they traded their Doritos and Cokes now. The idea created a snack bubble in the lunchroom market economy, and the allegory to the housing bubble that helped lead us into a recession was just delightful.
Mostly, though, it made me feel sorry for my daughter, because the lunches Bearman describes are pretty much exactly what I pack for my kid. I need to seriously rethink her lunch menu before she becomes the Michael Milken of preschool. Thanks Joshua!
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