From Word To Word

I went to the Guelph Farmers’ Market today, as I almost always do on Saturday.  One of the things that I love about the market is that it allows people to enter the local economy even if they do not have the capital or the inventory to open a store on a larger scale, and today I saw two examples that made me realize that this is an opportunity that the farmers’ market also offers to youth,

First, I was at my regular vegetable vendor, a very large and closely knit family, and I was served by the youngest child, a boy of maybe eight or nine years old.  He found the twenty-odd things that I wanted, wrote the prices by hand in a notepad, added the total correctly, took my money, and gave my correct change, all without the help of an adult or a calculator.  Most kids his age would simply not be capable of doing what he did, but then, most kids his age have never had the opportunity to try, because there are very few places where an eight-year old boy is allowed to do things in the real world.  The farmers’ market offers him an opportunity to enter into the economy in a way that is safe, that is meaningful to him, and that allows him to be a part of his family’s business.

Second, there was another vendor, a boy of twelve or thirteen, who was selling handmade wooden swords as toys or as decorations.  He has his own booth where he sits and carves and which he runs himself, though he is accompanied by his grandmother.  There is no other place where a boy that young would be able to own and run his own business.  It is only in the unique environment of the farmers’ market that he is able to participate in the economy in a way that is appropriate to his age and his ability.

If we really do want to encourage small and local businesses, as I think we should, then it seems to me that these kinds of opportunities are exactly those that we should be encouraging.  We need to be encouraging young people to learn as they go, to experiment with what it means to make and sell a product within their communities, to try their hand in the family business ar at running businesses of their own.  This, at least in my opinion, would be far more useful than all of the business schools and tax incentives put together.