In this satire piece, The Onion News Network interviews employees who are outsourcing their labor to foreign workers so that they can have more fun in the office.
The Pursuit of Happyness — Cold Calling
In The Pursuit of Happyness, Chris (played by Will Smith) is cold calling potential clients in order to increase sales for his company. The salesman who creates the most new clients will be hired on, but because of his personal life he isn’t able to put in the same amount of time as his competitors. Chris discusses a variety of ways he saves time, including not hanging up the phone and not drinking water, each of which would cost him valuable time.
The Economist — How Immigrants Can Save Dying Cities
The Economist outlines the impact that immigrants (particularly young ones) could have profound impacts cities that struggle with revitalization. If you’re looking for a book that details many of the arguments made in this video, I highly recommend Moretti’s New Geography of Jobs.
Chicago Booth Review — Video Killed the Radio Star
Erik Hurst, an economist with the University of Chicago, delivered an interesting commencement address that focused on the role of video games in the supply decisions of young men. While a bit more academic than some other commencement addresses, it sets the stage for a nice discussion on the increasing value of leisure.
Quartz — Robots Should Pay Taxes
Bill Gates, in an article with Quartz, argues that if a robot which take workers’ jobs should be required to pay taxes. Those tax funds should be redistributed to pay for re-training programs.
Marginal Revolution University: Is Education Signaling or Skill Building?
Another great clip from the Marginal Revolution University team, but this time focused on the value of an education. Just like the robotization duel, I like to break this one down into multiple smaller clips and put clicker questions in the middle of them.
Marginal Revolution University: Will Machines Take Our Jobs?
Great work from the folks at Marginal Revolution University on the tradeoffs of robotization. I like to break this clip down into 6-7 parts and place clicker questions between the video clips.
Superstore: Structural Unemployment for Travel Agencies
Structural unemployment occurs when the skills and trades are no longer in demand from the general population rather than market fluctuations. Adam’s girlfriend, Amy, quickly points out that his travel agency failed because people use the internet to book travel and no long need travel agents.
Neal Brennan: College Loans
A student in my Labor Economics class shared this great clip of standup comedian Neal Brennan discussing why banks don’t want to loan for college degrees. This is a great clip to talk about capital market imperfections and even signalling.
Saturday Night Live — Chris Rock on Minimum Wage
Chris Rock explains on Weekend Update how a minimum wage (a price floor) is above equilibrium wage. Firms may want to pay lower wages, but an effective price floor is one that is set above the equilibrium such that firms aren’t able to pay the lower wages. Thanks to Jodie Beggs for finding the Jeopardy reference that led me to finding this video.