Economics Lessons

My mother-in-law, She Of The White-Glove Inspection, is coming on Friday, so we've put off schooling for the week and are spending all our time cleaning instead. But schooling really hasn't stopped, we've just switched subjects: we are now conducting an economics practicum. I am paying the kids to help with the cleaning jobs, and it is proving to be an interesting learning experience indeed.

Here's what we've learned so far:

• If you want to earn money, you have to work; and if you want to earn more money, you have to be willing to do jobs others won't do, such as clean the toilets.
  
• Wages can be negotiated. (Princess is a very aggressive negotiator, especially when it comes to cleaning the rabbit cage.)
  
• An open bidding process can result in a lowering of prices.
• Once you've agreed on the price for the job, you do the job for that price, even if it proves to be more work than you wanted it to be.
• Winning an open bid by bidding very low has an opportunity cost.
• Sonshine has a comparative advantage in scrubbing.
  
• Basic arithmetic to calculate tithing. (Addition and subtraction to make change, dividing by 10, rounding)