Tag: capital

Moana: Where You Are

Moana is ready to leave the island, but Chief Tui wants to convince Moana that the village of Motunui is all she needs. The island’s resources are scarce: there are only so many people and so much land. The islanders rely on each other to produce products using the resources that are available.

A second consideration for this video is how it relates to command and control economies or economies that practice arbitrage. There may be other island economies nearby that Motunia could trade with, but they currently only consume everything they produce on their own.

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Moana — How Far I’ll Go

Moana laments about how she wants to travel the sea, but her father wants her to stay behind and help her village. Moana wants to travel, but she can’t do it on her own. In order to travel the sea, she requires a variety of inputs like her boat and the wind in her sail. In order to build the boat, she needs wood from the trees on the island, but also some human capital associated with how to build a boat that won’t sink. All of our decisions, and any production that occurs on the island, requires resources. The main resource on this particular island is people’s labor, as they produce a variety of items to ensure society remains intact. As Moana says, “everyone knows their role on this island.”

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Superstore — Handheld Automation

Corporate has created new devices for customers to use that will allow them to look up where items are located in the store, scan the items, and pay for their total. The employees quickly point out that the device essentially replaces the workers and they are left wondering what that means for them. Dina tries to point out the relationship between ATMs and bank tellers, although she doesn’t have it exactly right.

At the end of the clip, Amy points out that corporate has also asked the stores to cut back employee hours, which implies that the new machines are replacing some of the labor in the store.

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World Economic Forum — Alibaba’s Automation

A look inside the robotic warehouse of Alibaba in Huiyang, China. The robots pick up the physical items and deliver them to the workers who are in charge of sorting the orders before shipment. The robots can carry about 1100 pounds of good around the warehouse floor all while not bumping into other robots because of a laser guidance system.

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Going Places (1948)

 

From YouTube:

Cold War cartoon defending the profit motive against anti-capitalist critics. The second of seven smart-looking animated shorts in the “fun and facts about American business” series. Its subject is “the profit motive,” and it stars “Freddie Fudsie,” a lazy soap maker who just wants to go fishing. He invents bar soap, makes some money, and is about to retire in peace and quiet when a sexy lady (the Profit Motive) walks by and Freddie — who suddenly needs more money to win her affection — never sees a fishing hole again. But that’s okay, because “the profit motive has been the driving force behind the growth of American industry” and “will make a better life for the children of tomorrow.”

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The Founder — Opening Scene

The Founder is based on the rise of Ray Kroc and the McDonald’s brothers. The opening scene of the movie can be used to talk about a variety of topics in producer theory. Michael Keaton plays entrepreneur Ray Kroc and the opening scene starts with Kroc explaining how fast food establishments can upgrade to a 5-spindle milkshake machine and boost the production of milkshakes at the restaurant. Keaton also goes describes themes that are used in monopolistic competition that focus on firms differentiating their products, perhaps by being able to focus on milkshakes.

Thanks for the submission Ryan Herzog!

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