I believe the newest series has hit the market. Our local news stations (Houston) ran stories covering the first day buying frenzy. Alas, I was unable to buy any.
It's funny you should mention using Pokemon as a motivational tool. I'm contemplating filing a class action lawsuit on behalf of all parents who are unable to obtain Pokemon cards in a reasonable amount of time and with reasonable effort.
My suit will allege that the children of parents who are able to obtain Pokemon cards have an unfair advantage academically, because they are more likely to be motivated to do their homework and thus will benefit from better grades and higher probability of academic success.
I will further assert that had the children of the parties to this class action been afforded an equal chance of obtaining Pokemon cards, they would have undoubtedly performed well enough in school (due solely to the motivational effectiveness of Pokemon merchandise) to have been accepted to Harvard (or a commensurate school of higher learning).
I will seek in damages (for each and every child of a "class" member") the estimated present value of the average lifetime earnings of a Harvard neuro-surgeon, an MIT educated advisor to NASA, a U.S. Senator (including hard and soft contributions, franking privileges and a sweet pension plan outside of the Social Security system), a venture capitalist, and Bill Gates college roommate (because you never know who my kid would have roomed with had he/she been accepted to a "good" school rather than the community college he/she will be luckily accepted to because I was unable to obtain the proper and only motivational tool available.)
I will name as plaintiffs Target, Walmart, Warner Brothers, Nintendo, Wizards of the Coast (Hasbro), 4 Kids Entertainment, every trading cards store in the United States, every school district in the United States (for allowing such unfair practices to persist), all the actors who provide voice-over for the animated series, my parents (for failing to motivate me) and the tobacco industry.
I estimate the combined total revenue of the above named plaintiffs to be approximately $18.5 trillion over the average lifespan of a five-year-old (this figure excludes the estimated income of my parents for privacy sake.) |
