Neil recalls that as a youth he loved listening to his mother read him fairy tales and found the story of The Pied Piper particularly fascinating.  It was hard to imagine any one person getting so many children to follow him into oblivion.   What did he have to keep them entranced?  What promise did he use to captivate them?  What was he selling?
It seems that in this day and age we still have the Pied Piper running around selling dreams to both children and adults.  And they are buying it.  Their desperation and lack of desire to do things for themselves makes them easy-sells.  They believe and follow a dream of getting something for nothing.