My friend Cliff was getting his two daughters ready for bedtime. The four-year-old, Emily, asked her father, "Can you read me a story? It doesn't have to be a long one." Cliff likes telling his girls stories, so he told her he would be happy to read her a story and that it could be a long one if she likes. Emily then suggested that instead of reading her one long story, he could read her two short stories. "Are you trying to negotiate with me to get more story-time?" Cliff asked, with humor, wondering if this was a ruse to trick him into telling more stories than usual.
Enter Hannah, his seven-year-old daughter who absorbs information like a sponge absorbs water. It soon became obvious that her agile little mind had encountered economics. Hannah remarked, "Daddy, if the demand for something goes up, so does its price. If Emily is demanding more stories, then the time you spend telling stories should go up also."
What a child! I should bestow her with honorary credit for four hours of my Introduction to Agricultural Economics class!
