I’m not sure if I should laugh at this or be outraged or just roll my eyes.
I found an envelope containing 3 letters, all of which were essentially identical. One was addressed to my son (8), one to my daughter (6) and the other was a generic copy for them to photo copy.
The letter told them to send a packet of stickers to the first person listed (there was a spot for 2 names to be listed). They should then move name number 2 to position 1, put their name in position 2, and send out 6 copies. In two weeks time they would get 36 packets of stickers!
My first instinct was to be really, really mad that a friend of ours would involve the kids in a pyramid scheme. But after contemplating it for a while, I’ve come to the conclusion that this is an excellent opportunity to explain at least two valuable lessons to my kids:
Exponential growth. It would be REALLY easy to show them how in just a few iterations of this scheme they will need more kids than are in the US to make this work.
Scams. It would be REALLY easy to show them how in just a few iterations of this scheme they will need more kids than are in the US to make this work. In short, not everything is as good as it looks.
At first I wanted to take these letters back to the originator and explain the illegality of a pyramid scheme. But now I think this is an excellent opportunity for my kids to make their own decisions, armed with the facts of how these things work. However, I am really uncomfortable letting my kids participate in something illegal. Even though they are just kids and this is just stickers, pyramid schemes are stupid to get involved with and I really don’t want my kids passing this crap along.
My plan now is to explain to my kids what this really is and how it will come crashing down very quickly. I’ll then return the letters to the originator with a simple “no, thanks” and let it go after that.
Things like that never really go anywhere anyway. I remember getting something similar with postcards when I was a kid. I did send it on, but never got anything back.
My mother participated in a recipe one once (send one recipe to the name on the top of the list and send 5 copies on to other people). She only got 1 recipe in the end, but it was for a fantastic marinade that we’ve used probably almost weekly during the summer for the ~15 years since then.
In general, I just throw them out. They never really work because even if you participate, many other people won’t and your kids aren’t likely to actually get any stickers. Use it as a teaching tool on why pyramid schemes are bad and then throw it out.
Anyway, you’re right. This is an excellent opportunity to teach your children a lesson or two in life. I see scope here for lessons in;
A/ Critical thinking. Do you believe anything and everything you read?
B/ Logic. Is it possible for everyone to get something for nothing?
C/ Mathematics. Exponential growth, if you think and 8 and 6 year old can handle it.
D/ Morals. Any point you’d like to make about wanting something for nothing, work ethics, whatever. Are the people who start these things stupid people, bad people or just misguided?
Handled correctly and your kids will realise that joining a pyramid scheme is as good as throwing your stickers away. I don’t think they’ll be tempted after that.
E/ Extravagance. Do you really need 36 packets of stickers?
(I could understand it if they were dealing in candy bars, but what the heck are they going to do with so many stickers?)
Dag Otto - Do they need that many? No… but kids collect useless stuff. Things they’ll never need. So do many adults. I don’t mind that part of it. Stickers are small and won’t get in the way.
Futile Gesture - I like the few more you added. And yes, I do think they can handle exponential growth concepts. It is easy enough to draw a single line, then 6 under that one, then 36 under that one, etc., so they can see how fast this grows.