Tag: incentives

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 Simpsons — Profit Motives of Publishers

What if it does so, in order to make a profit, by producing things you think are of poor quality. When is profit seeking good? Does Apple prey on us by creating the iPads we love? Or is Lisa on to something here, suggesting that we should not buy things from publishers that don’t contribute to “culture”? This clip should provoke some good discussion, and is ideal for an economics class.

Thanks to F. Bailey Norwood.

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Life in Pieces — The Sleepover

Sam is ready for her sleepover, but didn’t pack a toothbrush. She’s already realized that when her teeth fall out, she gets money from the Tooth Fairy. She’s connected the dots and realized that by not brushing she could get the income sooner. Her parents aren’t amused.

This scene was brought to my attention by a regular #TeachEcon contributor, Courtney Conrad.

Thanks to James Tierney for actually posting the video on Critical Commons.

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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.

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Adam Ruins Everything — Trophy Hunting

Some markets fail because of the lack of property rights, but trophy hunting could actually be used to alleviate some of those issues by assigning property rights to game wardens and then selling licenses for the right to hunt the animals. The funding from the licenses could then be used to help maintain the population. We don’t think Adam ruined anything here.

Big thanks to Kalina Staub for sharing this one with us!

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Super Troopers — Free Hot Dog

This clip is a great one for the first week of a principles course and can be used to teach a variety of concepts including opportunity costs, marginal analysis, and incentives. Farva isn’t the smartest police officer on the force, and he’s an even worse economist. The gas station offers a “free” hot dog for people who pump 10 gallons of gas, but Farva only needs 9 gallons to fill his car. He has to make a decision on the margin about whether he wants to get that extra gallon. He weighs the costs and benefits of the extra gallon to determine if the “free” hot dog is worth the cost of 1 gallon of gas. Ultimately, the hot dog cost his 1 gallon of gas.

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New Girl – Douchebag Jar

Schmidt has a tendency to be a bit eccentric and bother his roommates with a variety of sayings/outfits. These outburst tend to annoy his roommates so they collectively agree to regular his behavior and force him to pay a tax to a “douchebag jar” when he does things the group considers unfavorable.

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A Beautiful Mind: Ignoring the Blonde

The classic scene from A Beautiful Mind when Nash (Russell Crowe) and his friends are discussing governing dynamics. Nash’s realization is not that of a Nash Equilibrium, but rather the classic view of Adam Smith (everyone doing what’s best for themselves) is harmful compared to if they just work together for the common good. It can be a bit confusing since the Nash Equilibrium is not that people should work together for the great good, but this is still a good introduction to a lesson game theory because it helps introduce why it might be harmful for everyone to only do what’s in their own best interest.

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Ted: Jonas Eliasson: How to solve traffic jams

Traffic jams are often provided as an example of a market failure. Drivers are focused on their own driving and don’t consider how it may impact others. As a result, too many people use road systems and congestion occurs. This Ted Talk highlights how Pigouvian taxes could be used to correct the market failure by instituting congestion taxes. While it’s not presented by an economist, he uses a lot of economics concepts throughout the talk.

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