JONATHAN CHAIT JULY 27, 2011
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Another sign of economic distress:
According to a Visa survey, the Tooth Fairy is not immune to the slowed economy. With less money to go around, she's doling out an average of just $2.60 per tooth this year, compared to $3 in 2010.
Clearly this is a prime expenditure to cut back when you're feeling strapped. But $2.60 seems really high to me. My kids each lost a tooth the other night -- actually within seconds of each other, strangely enough -- and I gave them each a dollar. I thought it seemed high. When I was a kid I got a coin -- either a dime or a quarter, I can't recall which.
10 comments
Shh! YOU gave them a dollar? It's supposed to come from the Tooth Fairy. Kids grow up too fast as it is!
- AllanL5
July 27, 2011 at 3:45pm
The T/F brings no more than a dollar to my kids so she (he?) has been on a tighter budget when visiting my household. The $3 must be reserved for the kids with corporate jets in the back yard. In all honesty, who in the world would think to survey this? And Visa at that? Are they trying to get the tikes to accept credit cards in lieu of cash? The credit card swipe machine is rather bulky under a pillow and isn't too comfortable to sleep on. They'll need to get on that ASAP.
- tmmats
July 27, 2011 at 3:56pm
In my day we didn't have teeth
- Tristan
July 27, 2011 at 4:00pm
According to Sean Hannity, Halloween is a socialist plot because it teaches kids that they can get candy just by sticking their hands out. The tooth fairy is even worse - how on earth can you justify paying a kid for something that he or she is going to do for free? And what kind of lessons are we teaching our kids when we let just any old fairy come into the home and mess around in their bedrooms? Sure, the tooth fairy seems innocent enough, but once kids get a taste of the "lifestyle" it won't be long before they're trying to talk you into going to brunch, or the South Pacific revival at the community theater.
- GeoffG
July 27, 2011 at 4:28pm
You had it good growing up with no teeth. We didn't have teeth nor money. And we LIKED it that way.
- tmmats
July 27, 2011 at 4:49pm
You know better than this, Jonathan. You are comparing apples and oranges. You were born in 1972 and a dollar then is worth about twenty cents now. You are way too smart to make this elementary error, so I assume your post is tongue-in-cheek. I was never able to get either of my parents to understand that one cannot make across-the-board comparisons of prices, that you have to select a base year, either the year in the past in question, or else, in the present.
- liberalref
July 27, 2011 at 5:37pm
Tristan and tnmats. I remember my first set of teeth. Of course, none of them matched.
- Nusholtz
July 27, 2011 at 5:59pm
Vincent - I just spewed Sam Adams all over my monitor. When I was growing up, we couldn't even afford the fancy wooden teeth like George down at Ferry Farm had. Mine were made of corn kernels.
- dubyadoubte
July 27, 2011 at 8:00pm
tnmats - channeling his inner Grandpa Simpson!
- OkiSaru
July 27, 2011 at 8:48pm
As my dad always pulled our teeth out with pliers, we actually got a quarter from the tooth fairy--a fortune! Otherwise, the height of luxury was a very occasional dime on a hot summer's day to go get a lemon phosphate at the drug store. I never heard the word "allowance" until I got to UofM in '63.
- kras
July 28, 2011 at 3:49am