100 FIRST WORDS FOR LITTLE CEOS

A crash course in late-stage capitalism for entitled children.

Parents who’ve made it, professionally and financially, and who see themselves as captains of industry may enjoy indoctrinating their toddlers in the ways of the boardroom. This book may also have some appeal for the aggressively upwardly mobile. It would seem, though, to be of niche appeal at best, and less to children than to their parents. There is something to be said for teaching children how the world works, but teaching kids that their destiny is to dominate the marketplace and become a plutocrat, or to spend the rest of their lives aspiring to do so, seems cruel and stunting. While such concepts as Core Values (enumerated as Excellence, Trust, Honesty, and Integrity), Ethics, Mission, and Motivation sound positive, this work is clearly skewed toward the 1%. The only negatives mentioned are Bankruptcy, Risk, and Taxes (the creepy grin on Uncle Sam’s face clearly implies he’s getting away with something nasty; no mention is given of the useful things our taxes fund). Benefits are mentioned; such terms as Uninsured, Minimum Wage, Wealth Inequality, Union, and Strike are not. The illustrations depict an ethnically diverse cast of men and women in white-collar roles, portraying an unrealized ideal. Glass Ceiling and Tokenism don’t appear.

If this is a gag, it’s not a funny one.