Scrooge McDuck and Money Lessons

Hopefully most people will remember the cartoon Ducktales right?  I’m not the only one in existence to remember it? Well, I’ve been rewatching it by getting the discs from Netflix and I’ve learned a lot (okay, “learned” is stretching it…)! One key thing is that I still love the show as corny as it is.

Besides that, I’ve learned that people don’t like you if you are greedy and mean.  It isn’t necessarily that you have more than them, it’s the fact if you flaunt it and are just plain…well, scroogey.  In the pilot episode, it shows Scrooge being miserly and mean to everyone including his newly taken in nephews.  But in a shocking turn of events, he ends up poor.  To his surprise, no one likes him anymore (not that they did before but they at least feared/respected him) except for ONE person.  This person was a guy who he was going to take away his boat from him as he couldn’t make the payments to Scrooge anymore.  But he helps out Scrooge and teaches him a lesson—always be kind to people no matter your circumstances as you never know what could happen. And of course, Scrooge ends up being rich again.

Know how much money you have and where it is.  I love the money bin episodes that show him swimming in his gold.  It’s something I want to do someday (joking…maybe…okay, yes I do want to do it) but of course, I hope the Beagle boys aren’t around, or any sneaky leprechauns.  In the episode with the leprechaun, Scrooge can tell that exactly $225 in gold is missing just by diving into the piles.  As his nephews tell Webby, he can tell if a piece of gold is missing (and which piece of gold is it is) in 5 seconds.

Hard work pays off. I love the episodes that show him working his way up the money ladder.  He wasn’t always a tight-fisted rich miser.  He used to be a tight-fisted poor worker who, through his own hard work and saving, made it rich.  He still has his first dime that he ever made.

Money isn’t everything. This was a lesson that Duckworth (the butler) taught the boys.  They accused him of being Scrooge’s slave and asked him why he didn’t go work for himself because he could have really made himself rich.  Scrooge fires him when he hears that Duckworth doesn’t think money is everything and he and the boys are then kidnapped by vegetables from outer space to be actual slaves.   The lesson that Duckworth shows everyone is that while he might be a servant, he does it out of love for his job and Scrooge—he doesn’t have to do it, he wants to do it.  Scrooge ends up hiring him back when they get back from space because he can’t do everything Duckworth can.

That’s four things that I learned from Ducktales or that I at least picked up on again.  That and it’s okay if I pick up all the loose change that I find on the ground.  No matter how little, when you save, it really adds up.  Granted, I don’t pick up all loose change but I still pick up quite a bit.  Right now it’s going towards my wedding fund.

So I guess that was five things I learned….

Did you watch Ducktales when you were younger?  Do you watch old cartoons for nostalgia reasons? Ever see any lessons you might have missed when you were younger? (I mentioned previously that they talk about student loans on Darkwing Duck)

---