Extortion vs. Trade

Apropos Halloween, George Paci writes,

Thursday, American children will be going door-to-door making notional
threats in exchange for sugary foodstuffs. (This may or may not be a
good analogy for a particular popular political stance.)

Friday, American children will be making piles out of their loot:
stuff they want to keep, and stuff they want to swap for treats they
actually like. They will then commence creating and participating in
a market, trading things they don’t want for things they want, negotiating
exchange rates between various bite-size currencies, and sometimes
trading things they do want for things they want more, or for more of
something else they want.

They do this entirely out of self-interest: because it will increase
their happiness. No adult needs to coerce them into trading, or
even suggest or facilitate it.

There is no better day to teach kids about the benefits of trade (and
about subjective value), so I propose we promote November 1 as
Benefits from Trade Day.