Tonight's Kid Nation

Just in case you haven't heard of it this season CBS introduced "Kid Nation" a controversial reality show where 40 children lived in Bonanza City, New Mexico for 40 days with no adults. Well there are adults around but they have limited contact with the children. The big question seems to surround child labour laws since they are running their own city and doing all the work.

Now I don't agree with children being forced to participate. But each episode they are provided with the opportunity to drop out and return home. So if it does become too much they always have the opportunity to walk away. To date 2 people have already dropped out and gone home.

From a psychological point of view I find it really interesting. On the whole they aren't as jaded as adults. It's a world that isn't ruled by consumerism and greed. It is based on relationships and loyalty. It's a functioning society but it really shows you something about motivations. They work and keep things running and it doesn't seem to be about the money since what I can tell the money is negligible.

Tonight's episode was really telling. There are 4 teams and each episode they compete to determine their place in the class structure. There is the upper class, then the merchant class, followed by the cooks and lastly, the labourers. The jobs are determined by the class and so are the wages. Now if all 4 teams complete the task within a certain amount of time they also get a reward. With the reward there are two choices. In this case they had to choose between a mini-golf course or a library of holy texts (i.e. the Bible, the Koran, etc.). Religion had been the theme of this week's show. The town council let the people vote and they chose the library. I must admit that I was a little surprised. I thought they would've chosen the mini-golf. Maybe that's bad of me but in a town where there's not a whole lot to do I'm not sure I wouldn't have been voting for the mini-golf myself if I was there.