Capitalism and Invisible Workers

As an old preschool teacher I was thinking about the little red hen: how she grew her grain, harvested it, took it to the millers to have it ground, then baked her bread. No one had any doubt who made that bread and where it came from (although the miller's need to feed the beasts that pulled his grindstone around and his need to feed HIS family does get lost here,) but mostly there are no invisible laborers here. (Well, again there were those other ingredients she put into it, where did they come from?

Basically in the little red hen's world, if you didn't do the work, you didn't eat.

In pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake baker's man, we skip a step. We want a cake baked as fast as it can be made from the baker. Now suddenly the people who planted the grain and the sugar and collected the salt are invisible and not given any credit.

In the Baker's world you eat if you have enough money to buy his cake.

I had never thought about all the invisible people who provide products for me in my world today.

This is the bread that I eat.  This is the store that sells the bread that I eat. This is the cashier who takes my money for the store that sells the bread that I eat. This is the person who puts the bread on the shelf before the cashier takes my money for the store that sells the bread that I eat. This is the truck that brings the bread that the person puts on the shelf before the cashier takes my money for the store that sells the bread that I eat. This is the baker who bakes the bread that comes on the truck that the person puts on a shelf before the cashier takes my money for the store that sells the bread that I eat. This is the miller who grinds the flour for the baker who bakes the bread that comes on the truck that the person puts on a shelf before the cashier takes my money for the store that sells the bread that I eat. This is the farmer who grows the wheat for the miller who grinds the flour for the baker who bakes the bread that comes on the truck that the person puts on a shelf before the cashier takes my money for the store that sells the bread that I eat. This is the cook who feeds the farmer who grows the wheat for the miller who grinds the flour for the baker who bakes the bread that comes on the truck that the person puts on a shelf before the cashier takes my money for the store that sells the bread that I eat.

Economics preschool style!