I had about 75 kids come to my house this year for Halloween.  Most were wearing standard fare kind of costumes: super heroes, princesses, a few witches, a few zombies, one pair of super-mario brothers, and a few who appeared like they could afford costumes but were too lazy to go to the trouble of wearing them.

Then there was one kid, maybe five years old, wearing some dark clothes with a big gold-looking necklace and some other gold-like accessories.  I ask him what he is dressed as.  He says very crisply, "I am a man that is rich."

After I shut the door, I laughed and wrote down his exact words.  This was one of those odd moments that causes the mind to pay a bit more attention.

This kid seemed to enjoy the idea of his costume.  He is too young to have a cynical view of this.  He simply believes it is good to be rich.  And, why not?  This is America.  Anyone can get rich here.

But, there can be more to ponder here.

One view is that there are people who resent rich people.  They could envision wearing the costume sarcasticly, dressing up as a rich monster oppressing the impoverished.  These would be the Occupy Wall Street types.  (There is another potential costume.  Instead of being a hobo, dress up as an OWS person who has been living in the park for 4 weeks.)

There is the phrasing this kid used.  He did not say, "I am a rich man."  He said, "I am a man that is rich."   This is uniquely humanizing.  I am a man first.  I happen to be rich.  What is missing is any sense of how he got rich.  What is implied is, again, that anyone can be rich because it is only an attribute available to someone who is a person first.

I did not give the kid any extra candy.  He got the same allotment as even the lazy ones who chose not to have costumes.   In retrospect, this seems a little unfair to me because he put more thought and energy into his costume.

He also was an early trick-or-treater and put some energy into saying "Trick or Treat" along with confidently answering my question about what he was dressed as.  Had he come later after the lazy ones, maybe it would have occurred to me to throw him a little extra.

Ah, but there is another potential counter-point.  Why should the rich man be given extra?  After all, he is already rich.   Shouldn't he just enjoy what he has and not put forward effort to make more?  Shouldn't he allow others to get more?  I do not know whether his parents re-allocated some of his candy to brothers and sisters (if any) under a progressive "tax" system.

But putting aside these unnecessarily analytical musings, I liked the kid and hope he gets rich some day.