This entry makes reference to the following Keystone Economic
Principles: 1. We all make choices. 3. All choices have
consequences. 5. Incentives produce predictable responses. 8.
Quantity and quality of available resources affect living
standards. Another one of the elementary level books I've been
reading is How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell. The title
is gross enough to engage many upper elementary students, but
the story is full of potential economic lessons. It revolves
around two boys who make a bet for $50. The bet is whether one
of them, after boasting about how he can eat anything, can
actually eat a worm a day for 15 days. They agree on some ground
rules and the challenge is on. After choosing to go through with
the bet, both have second thoughts at differing points, after
they begin to face the consequences or possible consequences of
their decision. But the incentive of $50 acts as a spur to both
of them as they each try to win the bet. One of the more
intriguing ties to economic thinking