
PayPal Brings Allowances Into the 21st Century - soundsop
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/01/paypal-brings-the-weekly-allowance-into-the-21st-century/
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epall
Are allowances even a good idea in the first place? My parents never gave me
an allowance. I did chores, and I was compensated for my work. It gave me a
deep understanding of work, and it was simple to go from "working" for my
parents to working for other people. What does an allowance teach children?

~~~
staunch
My parents almost never gave me any money directly. My dad did teach me to
sell though. From 12-16 I made some of my money selling misc things at flea
markets and the like on weekends.

Probably some of the most valuable entrepreneurial learning I ever got was
standing in front of a booth trying to convince people walking around to come
over and buy something.

I probably had a half dozen "businesses" with different friends and family
before I was 18. Much better than an allowance.

~~~
Shooter
Same for me. I asked my Dad for an allowance once. He laughed and said,
"You're barely earning your keep the way it is!" Then he sent me back to work.
The end.

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vaksel
this is actually pretty brilliant on eBay's part, since it'll get the kids to
only buy on eBay, since thats pretty much the only place where buyers accept
paypal(yes others accept paypal too, but on eBay pretty much everyone does).

So it'll generate them fees from sales, and they'll condition the kids to buy
their stuff on eBay instead of other sites.

~~~
patio11
Paypal also has a browser plugin which will generate a one-time Visa card
number, for use on sites which don't accept Paypal.

I hear there are some sites on the Internet which take Visa.

This instantly solves a pressing issue for many 13 year olds, namely, how do I
pay for my WoW account? And now Ebay will happily take, hmm, about fifty cents
of every month's bill. Oh, want to order from Amazon? You can do that, too.
iTunes? You can do that, too.

And when you get to 18 and can finally get a real honest-to-God debit card...
why bother? You know how to do things via Paypal.

I think this is _brilliant_. (Note: no financial interest in eBay, aside from
moving five figures through Paypal this year.)

