Many of you may have heard about McDonald's rewarding children at Florida's Red Bug Elementary School in Seminole County with free Happy Meals for good grades. I was appalled by the idea (I don't think grades should be rewarded with money or prizes, period). Luckily for all of us against the concept of advertising on report cards, Susan Linn of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood led a campaign to halt the practice with the support of almost two-thousand parents. McDonald's has terminated the pratice as a result of this campaign. Click on the link above to read the press release about the campaign's success.
I also highly recommend watching Stephen Colbert's take on this topic at http://www.commercialexploitation.org/.
-John
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Saturday, February 02, 2008
Start Money Lessons Early - Avoid UK Card Users Fate
I just read a post by Paul Michael on the terrific finance blog, Wisebread, that the UK banking giant, Egg, is now blocking over 160,000 credit cards - protecting the cards' owners from themselves. Paul expresses surprise that this didn't happen in US - it's likely only a matter of time before this happens here. I think it's sad that it's come to this for some and it only reinforces my belief that we must not wait to teach our children about money. Let them make their mistakes NOW - before they face a situation as dire as those in the UK. We truly can't afford to wait.
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