Tag: tradeoffs

Surf’s Up – Cody’s Second Board and Tube Talk

Cody is a surfing penguin who is preparing for a big competition. He’s already broken his first board and his mentor Big Z is trying to break his second one. Cody doesn’t have a lot of time left for the big competition, so he’s focused entirely on getting this board finished. Time is one of our scarce resources, and requires us to make decisions about how to properly allocate them to get the most out of what we’re doing. When Big Z goes on a memory trip about riding a tube, Cody can only focus on how many points that would earn him in the competition. His focus on limited time and maximizing points is frustrating Big Z.

Thanks to Amanda Mandzik for the scene recommendation.

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Surf’s Up – Building a Surfboard

Cody is getting ready for his first big competition with his mentor “Big Z,” but it turns out to be more difficult than he thought. Cody has gotten his hands on some koa board, the very best wood for building surfboards. In this scene, Cody is frustrated with how long it’s taking Big Z to build the board. Time is one of our many scarce resources, and Cody doesn’t feel like he has time to waste by slowly building this surfboard. He’s running out of time and needs to get it done much quicker.

Thanks to Amanda Mandzik for the scene recommendation

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Surf’s Up – Wasted Day

A surfing penguin currently riding the wave of success enters his first professional competition. In this scene, Cody Maverick (Shia LaBeouf) spends his day making a board that he thinks will help him win the contest, but things aren’t looking too good. His mentor reminds him it’s supposed to be fun, but Cody reminds him know he doesn’t have time for fun. We all face a limit on our resources, which economists refer to as the scarcity principle. As a result, we have to make decisions about how we allocate those resources.

Thanks to Amanda Mandzik for the scene recommendation!

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The Good Place – The Trolley Problem (Part 2)

The veil of ignorance is a hypothetical situation created by philosopher John Rawls to help illustrate how self-interest and ego impacted decision-makers at the highest level. Rawls wanted to find a way to create a more just society by exposing individual biases that may create injustice. The veil of ignorance is a way to expose students to their own biases and illustrate how their personal experiences and self-interest may shape the way they view the world and others around them. Under the veil of ignorance decisions about justice and the allocation of resources are made by a person who does not know what position they may have in society.

The Trolley Problem is used to demonstrate the role the veil of ignorance plays in decision-making. Students are asked if they would save five people from a speeding car if they had to push one person in front of the car. They are then asked to remove the veil of ignorance and see how they would react if someone they loved were in the group of five people who would be hit, or if someone they loved would be pushed in front of the car to save the five other people. This unlikely scenario is meant to reinforce how self-interest and personal experience can impact the decision-making process.

Thanks to Jamie Wagner for the clip recommendation and summary!

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The Good Place – Trolley Problem

Chidi and Eleanor tackle a famous ethical dilemma, the trolley problem. The thought experiment is popular in philosophy and ethics courses, but the same experiment can be used in an economics context when discussing opportunity costs and costs. In a literal sense, whichever way the trolley goes will have a cost associated with it based on the people who will die. Depending on the structure of your course, you may also be able to look at the trolley problem from a game theory perspective.

Thanks to Jamie Wagner for the clip recommendation

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The G Word with Adam Conover – Cost Benefit Analysis of Government Investment

The US economy has benefited tremendously from government investment in technological advancements designed to improve the US military’s firepower, but is it worth it? There are a number of equity considerations around the investments, but the efficiency gains are a bit more obvious. The research is funded by taxpayers, so it begs the question of what is the best use of funds. Adam questions how funds should be used, but essentially proposes viewers consider the tradeoffs that are present in each new advancement

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Spider-man (2002) — Making a Choice

In this clip, Green Goblin has given Spider-man a choice between saving his girlfriend or a car full of children. Even superheroes face opportunity costs! While it looks like there is a tradeoff between saving one versus the other, there are also larger opportunity costs associated with choosing to be a superhero. By becoming Spider-man, Peter Parker places his loved ones in danger when he could be living a “normal life,” but that also means the larger population loses their “friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.”

This clip was submitted by Lianne Kulik, who learned about it from Megan Kirts and Brian O’Roark.

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Christmas with the Kranks — Skipping Christmas

With their daughter heading out of town, the Krank family decides to skip Christmas and head on vacation. An opportunity cost is the value of the next best alternative. While their daughter was still at home, the Krank family preferred spending it with their family and celebrating Christmas. After their daughter announces she’ll leave, the Krank family decides to head to the Caribbean.

Thanks to Mandy Mandzik for the clip recommendation. Check out her working paper, All I Want for Christmas is an A on My Econ Final: A Holiday-Themed Review Class, for more Christmas-themed economics examples.

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Superstore — Employee Appreciation

After a recent uptick in the amount of union activity in the store, the corporate office has decided to institute Employee Appreciation Day. Jonah is quick to point out that this particular day always seems to occur whenever they are trying to get people to sign union card. He advocates for the union instead and mentions that joining a union may provide more long-term benefits, but Amy and Dina work to convince the employees that a union is unnecessary.

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Burn! The Cost of a Wife

Sir William Walker (Marlon Brando) is sent to break up Portugal’s sugar monopoly on the fictional Caribbean island of Queimada. Walker goes on to incite a revolt among the slaves with the leadership of a dock worker, José Dolores. Walker simultaneously attempts to convince plantation owners to turn against the government.

This is an inspired movie moment layered with cultural conflict addressing the transition in economic theory during colonialisms transition to capitalism and the economic forces at play in the transition from slave labor to wage labor, or as is implied wage slavery.

Walker outlines the cost of taking a wife and compares that with the cost of slave labor. He outlines tradeoffs of the two in an attempt to convince the men around the table that slaves are the better option.

Thanks to Chris Brennan for the clip recommendation!

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