Six-Year-Old Learns About Socialism

Ask a grown-up WHY DO I GET JUST £1 POCKET MONEY A WEEK? ENNIS, 6 BBC business editor Robert Peston replies: You are given £1 a week because the people who look after you think that’s fair. And even if you think it is not fair, they have all the power and all the money, so there is little you can do about it. You could scream and scream till they give in and give you more pocket money, but that is not a nice way to behave (although some so-called grown-ups, such as movie stars and bankers, have been known to do that). So you will have to acquire some power, and there are two ways to do that. There is capitalist individualism, which means you need to become brilliant at doing something people need, so that people pay you lots of money to do it. Or there is the syndicalist way, where all the six-year-olds gang up together and ask the grown-ups nicely to share their money with you (democratic socialism), or where you threaten to break the grown-ups’ things unless they share their money with you (revolutionary socialism). If you’re 10 or under and have a question that needs answering, email ask.a.grownup@theguardian.com and we’ll ask an expert for you. Twitter fiction

A newspaper advice column shows a six-year-old asking why they receive only £1 in pocket money each week. The adult response humorously explains capitalism, democratic socialism, and revolutionary socialism as possible ways for children to gain more money. The joke is that a serious political-economic analysis is applied to an ordinary child’s allowance question, making it useful as a reaction to unfair pay or absurdly overcomplicated explanations. EN: A newspaper advice column shows a six-year-old asking why they receive only £1 in pocket money each week. The adult response humorously explains capitalism, democratic socialism, and revolutionary socialism as possible ways for children to gain more money. The joke is that a serious political-economic analysis is applied to an ordinary child’s allowance question, making it useful as a reaction to unfair pay or absurdly overcomplicated explanations.

• @rzeczyzabawne / 10645 2023-07-12