Teaching Economics with Media
Frank convinces an art gallery director to come to the bar in order to try and convince her to buy their bad art. After looking around and watching a homemade video, she describes how art is worth what the buyer is willing to pay and that everyone has different preferences and values items differently. She also discusses the double coincidence of wants and how she no longer wants to buy back Frank’s painting.
Thank you to Ian Pearson for the clip reference!
After Dee has a heart attack and finds out she doesn’t have health insurance, Mac and Charlie go on a quest to get a job that includes healthcare benefits. They decide to apply to a job together, but since they only care about the healthcare part of the job, they end up accepting a minimum wage job.
After Dee has a heart attack, she heads to the hospital only to find out that she doesn’t have insurance because her dad canceled the policy when they were younger. Mac and Charlie are confused that people have to pay to stay in a hospital because they think of it like a public good similar to police and fire protection, which is nonexcludable.
Frank shows up to get a full body health scan because he’s been having a bit too much fun. This line alone is a great clip for teaching moral hazard when it comes to healthcare.
Charlie has been crabbing in the local river, which may or may not have waste runoff, to try and raise some money during the recession. Their logic is that food is depression-proof since people have to eat. They believe that people’s demand for food is inelastic and they just need to acquire food to sell in order to earn money.
Frank poses as an art collector to try and convince the art gallery owner that a really bad piece is actually really valuable. This clip is a great segue into subjective value and preferences of individuals.
Charlie and Mac discuss how crazy it is that Americans need to pay for healthcare and would only expect that from a communist dictator. Their confusion comes about because their friend, Dee, has a heart attack and then they realize that the could be injured at any moment.
The gang decides to try and start selling their own gasoline because they are tired of the high prices the local gas station is charging. The three come into the gas station to let the owner know that he’s about to see the pain of a free market because they intend to take customers away from him. Free markets allow for easy entry and exit of competitors, which should drive down prices and profits.
Dee offers her womb to become a surrogate for a couple. In order to try and get a higher payoff, she offers to have more children at a discount for the couple. She notes that savings really kicks in if the couple were to have multiple children at one time. She even offers to be an octo-mom. This could also serve as a fun example of second degree price discrimination.
While trying to spy on a local fish accident, Dee has an accident that causes the business to shut down for a bit. This reduction in supply is shown later when Dennis, Mac, and Charlie go to a restaurant for lunch and intend to order fish. Because of the reduction in supply, the market price for snapper has gone up to $44, but the guys buy the fish anyway since they are charging it to Frank’s card.
Thanks to Maggie Sciabica for the reference!
Mac and Dennis come up with a plan to create Paddy’s Dollars in order to stimulate their bar’s revenues, but they have the system a bit backward. They decide to give away a bunch of vouchers that could be used to buy beer to local homeless people. Unfortunately, there’s no incentive for those individuals to come back and buy more Paddy’s Dollars later. This would also be a neat example when teaching circular flow diagrams.