You have competition, sir.

My 10-year-old son is not your normal kid. Granted he likes football (Redskins thankfully) doesn’t like girls, loves video games, hates homework, and has every Lego toy imaginable. And when he had to present who his personal idol was at school, he presented me, his old man. I floated for a week after that. Until he told me it was because someone else had already done Alex Ovechkin, George Washington, and ol’ Honest Abe. Just sayin’….but hey I was the MAN for a few days.

But what he’s most fascinated in is business, economics and politics. A couple weeks ago he asked me to give him a detailed explanation between communism, socialism and democracy. He then followed that up with requested examples of countries that had those types of governments. Now how do you describe China these days? Communicapitalism? On the economic side he’s been doing some hands-on practicum by leveraging his Veggie Chips at school lunch and charging interest to kids who want to cadge one. Now what’s the vig when one of your classmates wants to nick a veggie chip? And what if you don’t pay back in time? Maybe he’s got some lunch-ladies ready to break some Skecher-clad legs.

Yep, just like Dad.

His interest in business – at 10 years old, mind you – is, well, nuts. My mini-Alex Keaton asked me a year or so ago how cable systems work and make money. After an hour, he pretty much had it figured out, although “franchise fees” got him a bit confused. But now when he’s watching the tube, and says stuff like “I like Xfinity better…sounds cooler…better brand,” I smile, then think about how much Princeton is going cost per semester.

Last month he asked me exactly what Broadband Gear Report does while we walked our ridiculously fat bulldog, London. Trust me, this dog is a planet.

Him: “Dad, what exactly does Broadband Gear Report do?”

Me: (As London started to eat an empty Big Gulp cup) “Well, you see all that equipment hanging from those poles and running into the house? You know that white cable that goes into our cable box, and the box itself?”

Him: “Yeah…”

Me: (As London finished off one of the neighbor’s tulips) “Well there are about 18,000 men and women out there who work for the cable companies who need to know about this stuff. What’s good, what’s better, what’s best. And the companies that make this stuff keep coming out with new stuff. So those 18,000 – what we call subscribers – need to know what will work in their system, what to buy, and what will make their system faster and more reliable. Plus there are all kinds of new stuff for cable companies to help them do all that triple-play stuff we talked about. So I send them a newsletter every week to help them figure it all out. They seem to like it.”

Him: “OK, but how do you make MONEY?”

Me: (As London tried to get his mouth around the tire of a Prius) “Ahhh my son…you shall thrive in your life. We make money by charging companies a fee to advertise in our newsletter and on the website. We do pretty well. Usually the bigger the ads, and the higher up on the page, the more we charge.”

Him: “So you have subscribers, and you have advertisers, and then you send them the newsletter at the same time every day which is kinda like how shows come on TV at the same time?”

Me: “Yup – more or less.”

Him: “Sounds like a cable system.”