Halloween Trick Or Treat Kids Created Wealth By Trading Candy

From THE BEACON, "How Do Your Kids Create Wealth by Trading Halloween Candy?" by Art Carden:

The kids were creating wealth even though they weren’t making any new candy. How? They were getting candy they preferred for candy they didn’t like as much.

My daughter, for example, mentioned that she doesn’t actually like candy with caramel in it (I was surprised to learn this). This means Snickers, Twix, Milky Ways, and a whole host of other delicious candies are out.

If trade isn’t an option, she’s simply stuck with a lot of candy she doesn’t want to eat. With access to a market consisting, in this case, of her brothers and friends, she is able to swap the caramel-containing candies she doesn’t want for non-caramel-containing candies she does. She is better off. Her trading partners are better off. There’s an important lesson here: by getting candy into the hands of those who value it most highly, the kids are creating wealth.

It’s a mistake to think that wealth consists of stuff. Wealth, rather, is whatever people value. For someone who likes Snickers bars, Snickers bars are wealth. For someone who doesn’t like Snickers bars, they aren’t wealth—unless they can be traded. If they can, the excess Snickers bars become wealth because they can then be swapped for something better.