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The business lesson these scouts learn is that people will buy extremely over-priced cookies because the scouts are selling them. In the real world, the price-value ratio is just as irrelevant... when the government er taxpayer is paying.

Kids expect people to buy the cookies no matter the cost, simply because GS are selling them. I am equally repulsed by public schools that prostitute students by sending them out on various candy-selling fundraisers. The message is, just have your hand out and people will cough up the cash. The product "sold" is mearly the token love gift given in exchange for the donation.

Socialists-in-training. If this were an honest, moral life lesson it would involve a product or service that has real value, and would teach kids that productivity and good character (not dependancy on a perpetual charity scam) is the key to success.

Alas, these sales are what they are: fund-raisers. Extracting the largest amount of cash from the donors is the goal. Because the end justifies the means, it's okay to use children to do the dirty work.

The cadet/senior level of Girl Scouts have an account into which a certain portion of the sales are deposited into. This account follows the girl if she moves to another area and joins another troop. The money in this account can only be used to pay for girl scout activities that would normally come out of the parent's pocket. So the girls that don't have financially sound parents work harder "fund raising" as it directly results in more money in their personal accounts.

I fail to see how this qualifies as "socialist in training". I see the exact opposite, IMHO.

Girls that work in certain capabilities as "Leaders in Training" also earn community service hours required by some organizations and school projects. Some of the senior level girls that earn their Gold Award also qualify for a college scholarship. My daughters are working their way through college (so to speak) as Girl Scouts and we greatly appreciate the support of those that like and purchase the product they sell.

Regards,
DocRock

But they don't go around with their hand out, they're selling stuff. Maybe the mark-up is a little high to get extra funds (though I don't think so, prices on GS cookies are comparable to normal grocery store cookies) but that's still not socialistic. If they were just sending the kids out to beg for money and offering nothing in return that would be socialism, sending kids out to sell stuff is teaching the fine capitalist lesson that you can't just get money from people you have to give them something for their money.

Extracting the largest ammount of money from customers is the goal of all business.