[ExI] the formerly rich and their larvae...

[spike]

> Bryan Bishop
...
> Interesting. I was born in 1990. In the very late 80s, my 
> parents started to look at the market and make some 
> investments to make sure I'd have some good college funding...

Bryan, one of my college buddies had a daughter, his only larva, in 1993.
He started a college fund for her that year, with the amount of money we
paid in one year at that college.  He reasoned that since she had a long
time for the money to grow, the stocks he chose were all high fliers, the
wildest dot coms.  In 2000, when she was seven, her net worth exceeded mine
(I was 40 that year, and 18 years into my career).  A year later, her net
worth was pretty typical of an eight year old.  Today at fifteen, her net
worth is about enough to pay for one year at the college her father and I
attended.

Unfortunately, she is not college material.  It's looking like she will not
even be able to finish high school, but a GED isn't entirely out of the
question. 

> 
> What's with this commercialization of education, anyway?
> 
> - Bryan

Why not?  See what commercialization did for Christmas.  Took it from an
obscure religious holiday to the wild bacchanalian success it is today,
providing profits for stockholders in retailing businesses, giving seasonal
employment to millions, all those songs, Snoopy's doghouse, the parades, the
football games, all thanks to crass commericalization.  

Commerce is our friend.

spike