While students progress through the latter end of their time in school and begin forming their plans for their future professions, teachers are often encouraged to present their students with some of the challenges they may face down the line in these professions. One way to do this is through novels that depict a struggle in the profession of a main character. Roald Dahl’s Charlie and The Chocolate Factory is an excellent choice for teachers to incorporate in their teachings for this very reason. Willy Wonka would’ve had to face a number of challenges in order to pioneer his monopoly over the candy industry, despite the help of the Oompa Loompas.
Consulting the infographic below, What Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory Would Cost Today, provides a good sense of the upkeep on the Factory depicted throughout the novel or movie adaptation for teachers and students alike. All of the estimated costs per year are detailed for a better understanding of how much it costs to produce the Wonka magic.
It doesn’t get more extravagant than the chocolate river, but in order to keep the 150,000 gallons of chocolate flowing through the factory, estimating at the cost of chocolate today, would cost about $33 million dollars a year. This just happens to be an excellent lesson of overhead production costs for students interested in a manufacturing job themselves. In addition to these costs, the Factory has to have a workforce to make sure production runs smooth. The Oompa Loompas, while being excellent dancers, are far from underpaid. Assuming they’re paid the average chocolate industry employee salary, around $50,000 a year, plus healthcare, Mr. Wonka’s whacky workforce comes in at around $81 million dollars per year. This is another integral aspect of owning a business that students should consider before setting their eyes on creating and maintaining a business of their own.
These were only some of the financial implications that Willy Wonka was faced with in running his chocolate factory. There are bound to be a number of operational challenges he would face as well. As such, teachers should encourage their students to look at situations through a different lens rather than approaching every problem the same way. Similarly to Wonka, students are bound to run into many issues when they enter the professional world. Nothing as crazy as flying elevators or golden goose eggs hopefully, but still challenging nonetheless. This serves as a good reminder for teachers to implore students to consider incorporating some otherwise unorthodox methods to solving the problems they may face down the line in their professions.
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