When I was a kid in fifth grade elementary school, we went on a field trip to a place called Enterprise Village. Enterprise Village was a phony shopping mall, where kids would ‘work’ like adults did. For example, my job was to be the manager at Paragon cable, the local cable company (Paragon, and many other local businesses, sponsored the function). I had employees (classmates), and we all got paid different rates.

Each of us got a paycheck, and we had to manage our own checkbooks. We could write checks to other businesses for goods or services. It was a blast, actually!

I was a sharp kid at 10 or 11 years old. I was aware that we were working with fake funds, fake money, fake jobs. But the goods I could purchase with my fake money were totally real.

So, since I’m such a generous guy, I wrote bad checks so that I could bring home some goodies for my brother and a friend or two. I’m sorry, Enterprise Village, but I knew better. I intentionally wrote checks my BS checking account couldn’t cash, but I brought home more stuff than the other kids. I remember the other kids asking how much I got paid as a manager, thoroughly confused!