Things I learned from bedtime stories

As you get older, you learn about things from your kids, or when you are interacting with your kids. Below are some things I learned from reading bedtime stories to my son:

What I learned from Elsa Beskow's Pelle's new suit (swe: Pelles nya kläder). I learned that barter economy may work, however it can only be efficient if, and only if, the margin utility (mu) of any labor (l) equals any other labor (l^2,3...n) within the same time restraint (t). Previous investments in knowledge or other forms of capital investments (c) or interest on knowledge and capital (i) are assumed to be close to zero (~0) in order for Pelle to be able to acquire his suit by trading his unskilled labor with highly skilled professionals. (Plenty of examples of this relationship [(mu*l¹/t = mu*(l^2,3...n)/t] appear in the story, for example when Pelle meets the tailor who willingly manufactures the suit while Pelle clears the hay field and takes care of the pigsty. Or when Pelle enjoys the newly woven fabric from his mom's spinning wheel while he feeds his kid sister.)
This story is bordering general economic assumptions from Say's law - "products are paid for by products". Of course, all of this goes down the drain if we abolish fixed prices or start implementing David Ricardo's labor-maximizing theory on Comparative Advantage. Also worth noticing is that the protagonist in the story, Pelle, seems to be living in the Swedish highlands - judging by the folklore costumes in the illustrations - it could well be the regions of Dalarna or Härjedalen. But the proximity to the Norwegian border does not seem to influence the state of autarky, which dominates the story. Hence, only domestic trade is possible for Pelle. Perhaps this is because Ms Beskow was too old to get in touch with the Heckscher-Ohlin model of general equilibrium of free international trade.

What I learned from Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Peter Rabbit. From a sociological perspective, I find this one almost too easy to see through. Peter is the son of a single mom, and the lack of family values is a predominant part of the initial paragraphs. Mom goes off on her own (to work and to buy produce for supper) and lets her young ones fend for themselves without any parental supervision. And Pelle, lacking a good male role-model in his life, gets himself into mischief right away by looting the honorable Mr MacGregor's garden. Even more annoying is that while Peter is apprehended during his theft of radishes, he manages to escape, and the reader is supposed to root for the villain in the story - against the old Mr MacGregor and his will to defend his private property. No justice is being served, other than that Peter loses his jacket and shoes and eventually ends up on his forgiving mother's doorstep. We can only imagine what the future may hold for this delinquent. "Juvenile hall" is the prediction I would assume to be his future prospect.



What I learned from Thorbjorn Egner's Klas Klättermus and Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are.
This is more of a general lesson of life that shines through in both of these books. And the lesson is this: Lazy, irresponsible outcasts of society with clearly delusional as well as narcissistic and grandiose personalities will always make it in the end. No matter how bad their morals are. Even if they misbehave and are sent up to their room without supper - there is still warm food waiting for them at the end of the evening.

(Further reading: Hat off for PopPop Angelo who mentioned the political interpretations of The Wizard of Oz where everything from the gold standard to William Jennings Bryan appears, if only by means of allegories.)