Teaching Economics with Media
Cloud 9 has divided employees into two teams to see who can sell the most stuff by the end of the day. The winning team will earn a pizza party, but Glen is surprised that employees aren’t participating. He didn’t reveal that the winning team also gets $100 per member, which is a much better incentive for the employee. As Amy notes, for incentives to be effective, they need to be announced before the start of the competition.
Meemaw is having a garage sale and have asked Missy and George to help out. When George questions the pricing decisions of the junk for sale, Meemaw explains that she starts prices high so that people can negotiate and feel like they saved some money, which is another way of arguing that she’s trying to let the customers experience some consumer surplus. When Missy & George try to negotiate for better pay, they realize that it may not work out.
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.
Two potential sailors come aboard the Pequod to inquire about becoming joining the crew. Peleg asks why any man would want to become a sailor when the conditions are so rough. He works through the requirements of being a sailor to make sure the men are willing to undergo through strenuous conditions. The reason whalers were so well-paid at the time was because the risk of death aboard the ship.
Here’s a good interview from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and the captain of a fishing boat on the show Deadliest Catch.
In the beginning of the clip Rachel tells Ross that she got her old job back at Ralph Lauren. Ross asks if she is still going to take the job in Paris (which she was offered in the previous episode) since she was hired back at her old job. Rachel says she still wants to go to Paris because when the people at Loui Vuitton found out Ralph Lauren wanted her back they decided to offer her more money. This clip is a good example of opportunity cost, which is the loss of potential gain from other alternatives when one alternative is chosen. If Rachel wouldn’t have chosen, the job in Paris she would have been missing out on more money than if she would have stayed. Since she is taking the job in Paris her opportunity cost is that she will have to leave her friends and family.
Thanks Kailey Werkheiser for the clip and the summary!
A very interesting mix of Mary Poppins and minimum wage policy. Kristen Bell, as Mary Poppins, quits her job because minimum wage isn’t paying enough to help keep her above the poverty wage after taking out taxes. The video discusses how big of an impact a $3 increase could make in her life.