How do I find my first job? Why do women earn less? How did Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg start billionaire companies? Is capitalism the problem? These are questions many children and some adults ask themselves. The book “Wirtschaft for Kids” has the answers. In an interview with ntv.de, author Alexander Hagelüken talks about why pocket money is so important that Germans have extremely little wealth compared to other Europeans and why adults shouldn’t be afraid of economic issues either.
ntv.de: In the foreword you ask whether the reader has ever negotiated with the parents about pocket money. Did you negotiate with your parents for pocket money as a child?
Alexander Hagelüken: Definitely. When I was a child, the euro didn’t exist yet. I remember that at the time it was about one mark and 75 pfennigs. In the beginning, these were small amounts. I didn’t get what I thought was appropriate. But so it probably is with millions of children.
Now you are on the other side of the negotiation. They have four children. How did the negotiations with you go?
We used to often negotiate pocket money with my two older sons, who are now 21 and 23 years old. Now it starts with the two younger ones. They are nine and soon seven years old. I have to admit though that we’ve been a bit lax about paying out regularly lately because pocket money hasn’t really caught on yet. That’s definitely a point where I’ll have to brutally improve in the near future.
Pocket money is the first topic that you cover in detail in this book. Why is this a good way to teach kids about economics?
Pocket money can be used to playfully teach children something that often affects us later in life. For example, if you don’t know what wages are paid in your industry when negotiating salary, you will have a bad hand. With pocket money, children also learn how to handle money independently. Because for the first time in their lives they can buy something without their parents interfering. Children learn how to deal with money. That’s important, because the economy doesn’t run away because you don’t feel like it. It always influences our lives.
You also write that in your book. When did you realize what business is all about?
I started reading newspapers at a very young age. At that time it was the Süddeutsche Zeitung that I work for today. Of course, I was also interested in many other things, for example politics and football, but also in the economy. I was already studying the stock market prices back then and I really wanted to have a share from my father. He then bought me one for 15 marks. I have always followed how the share price is developing.
Nowadays, young people trade stocks on their smartphones during their lunch break. Is that a sign that young people today are more concerned with business issues?
I think it’s a positive development that young people are learning how to invest and which stocks to buy or sell now. Germans are generally very cautious when it comes to investing money. Far too often they just leave their money in a savings account.
Today’s youth learn to google from an early age. Does this easy access to information make it easier for them to learn about business issues?
We have an insane amount of information available digitally. But there’s also a lot more junk available at the click of a mouse than there used to be. That’s why I think it’s important to offer something easy to read in a reasonable form, even in these times.
Not only children find it difficult to understand the economy. When you look at the public debate about today’s energy crisis, what do you notice?
I think people often have the feeling that everything is insanely complicated. Let’s take the gas levy as an example: I don’t think it’s easy to see what this is really about, because the discussion is often political. Of course, the politicians have their own interests. They talk around the topic and steer the discussion in a certain direction. We therefore need a good explanation that initially gets by without an opinion. Political demands can then be derived from this.
So should adults read this book too?
Books written for teenagers are often read by adults. And if that’s the case with my book, then I’m happy. So as an author you are of course happy about every reader. Adult explanation books often don’t explain enough. I know such books myself. Right from the start, people are thrown at people with terms like microeconomics and macroeconomics. Every normal person says, “For God’s sake, what is that?”.
Which of the statistics you researched for this book really surprised you?
I was surprised at how few houses Germans own. In Germany, the rate is 40 percent. In other European countries, the rate is much higher – both in southern countries such as Spain and Italy, and in Eastern European countries. We used to say that you don’t have to buy because you can also rent cheaply in Germany. But now we realize that this is no longer possible. The result is that people in these countries were much more secure with their assets, while in Germany most left their money in savings accounts and received nothing in return. The average wealth of the individual citizen in Germany, an economy that is considered to be very strong in Europe, is much lower than in other European countries. This is a total slap in the face for how we deal with the economy.
Clara Suchy spoke to Alexander Hagelüken
