Kid Nation
The Root Of All Evil

Episode Report Card
M. Giant: C+ | Grade It Now!
Micro Economics
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description!

It's Day 20, and Divad has opened up a snack bar. From a table set up on one of the porches, she's selling stuff like peach cobbler at five cents a square. She claims that she's doing this so that everyone can afford something, since the stores are so expensive and nothing at her snack bar is more than ten cents. Of course, if her only goal was really to bring snacks to the masses, nothing there would be more than zero. But let's not split hairs. Not everyone seems to appreciate the business venture. Several members of the perpetually poor Green team show up to complain, as Sophia asks why she should pay five cents for canned apples that she could get from the kitchen for free. Divad tries to make a case for her value-added service. Laurel interviews that Red members like Divad aren't exactly hurting for money. And Divad doesn't even have the full support of the Red team, as we see Jared approaching his (apparently mute) teammate Jasmine in one of the stores to say that Divad needs a little competition, pointedly asking, "Do you see where I'm going?" Yes, but Jasmine's not going there with him. Next thing we see is Jared trying to set up a sad little table of his own, while Divad's supporter Kelsey harangues him about being negative while Laurel looks on. Kelsey rants, "Bill Gates has so much money! He made Microsoft and nobody complained about it." Well, not as much since she's been alive, maybe. Apropos of nothing, I'll just take this moment to point out that nobody ever complained about LBJ. Kelsey suggests that Jared offer to work for Divad for five cents a day. Jared takes this as the insult it is and storms off, saying, "Screw you." He complains bitterly to the cameras about Divad's activities, and that "the leadership isn't doing anything about it." So Jared does. Namely, he goes over to Divad's unattended snack bar and shoves the whole thing over onto the ground. All better now?

After the commercials, Kelsey is the first one to find the disarray. As Divad returns from wherever she's been, Kelsey starts freaking out at her over what Jared did. Guylan and Laurel show up for a little Council presence, but Divad is remaining calm and saying she's okay, and doesn't even want anyone's help cleaning up. As she sweeps up, she says that jealous people do things to throw the people they're jealous of off track, but shrugs, "But when they do it to me, it just makes me work harder." And she demonstrates this by sweeping the refuse into the street.

It's time for the Council to read the "Pioneer Journal." It claims that the original pioneers also worked for meager wages, and it figures that things haven't changed much. As an illustration, we see Mallory "shopping" in the dry goods store, but nothing she wants is in a Laborer's price range. "Yeah, we were Laborers three times, we know," agrees proprietor Sophia, who's probably thinking about that time their positions were reversed and Mallory gouged her for a quarter for that messenger bag. Meanwhile, the Council is getting a primer on the original Bonanza City economy. Basically, the first pioneers were all just hanging out, waiting for one of the miners to hit a gold strike, and then the town's leaders would decide how to divide the money. Yeah, that's pretty much what happened on Deadwood, too. The Journal warns that the rich got richer and the poor got poorer, and that's why people started leaving. Back at the store, Sophia wishes Mallory luck in the next Showdown, and sends her off empty-handed. See, it's funny because both of these girls are now worth at least $20,000 in the real world. Back in the Chapel, the Council gets to the part of the Journal where it tells them that there's a windfall waiting for them in the mine outside town, and that it's up to the Council to decide how to divide it. All three boys want to go check it out right away, but Laurel is against the whole idea, saying that it'll only trigger greed and selfishness and knife fights. (She didn't actually say knife fights.) But the boys prevail upon her to go check it out for now and make the decision later. Heading out of town, Anjay makes a crack about the Donner Party that is not well received. After the diet they've been on the last three weeks, I can't imagine any of them would be that tasty anyway.

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Kid Nation




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