Tag: tradeoffs

How I Met Your Mother — Track & Field Robots

In this clip, Tracy has a small debate with her roommate about going out to a party on St. Patrick’s day. While her roommate tries to convince her to go out, claiming that she is doing nothing with her time, Tracy rebuttals and says how she is “about to enter my robots doing track and field events period” as she looks over at her painting she has been working on. This clip displays the concept of opportunity cost. If Tracy decides to go out she could potentially be finding a new possible soulmate but she would be giving up time to work on her painting. If she decided to stay home, she could improve and progress the work on her painting but she would be giving up her potential love she could be finding.

Thank you for the clip and summary James Hetherington!

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Brad Paisley — I’m Gonna Miss Her

 

The song is about a guy that chose to go fishing instead of staying with his wife. It shows opportunity costs because he could either choose fishing where he didn’t know if he would catch anything or stay with his wife which could have been the best thing for him.

Thanks for the summary and the clip Aaron Wolfe! If you’d like to see more country music videos that have economic themes, check out Econ Gone Country.

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Swing Vote — Drink Less Beer

Molly (Madeline Carroll) and her dad Bud (Kevin Costner) are driving down the road, but Bud is unhappy with egg salad sandwich as a lunch option. Molly quickly points out that they are on a budget and that if he wants to eat better then he needs to drink less beer. This tradeoff can be illustrated with a budget constraint in economics. Given a fixed level of income, the only way to get more (or better) food, is to give up something else.

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How I Met Your Mother — Girls Vs Suits

Barney’s girlfriend finds his closet full of suits and gives him an ultimatum. He must choose between a closet of suits that he loves or a beautiful girl. He then breaks out into song about the benefits of both before ultimately making his final decisions.

Thanks for the recommendation Courtney Conrad!

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The Little Mermaid — A Kiss for Humanity

Ariel is making a deal with Ursula to become human. The clip begins with Ursula telling Ariel that she can become a human for three days by taking her magic potion. If Prince Eric falls in love with Ariel by the third day then she can stay human forever. If he does not fall in love with her, then she will go back to being a mermaid and work for Ursula. In addition, Ursula wants Ariel to give up her voice as payment for the potion to turn human.

This clip applies to the economic concepts of opportunity cost and decision-making. Life is full of choices and with each choice comes evaluating your opportunity costs. One’s opportunity cost is what they give up to obtain something else. In this clip, Ariel has to decide whether to give up her voice to become human. At one point in the clip, Ariel says that if she becomes a human forever then she will never see her family again. She has to consider if she wants to give up being with her family to be with Prince Eric. She also must decide if she wants to give up her voice in order to turn human for three days. This clip is a great example of opportunity cost and how one must evaluate their opportunity cost to make the best decision for them.

Thank you for the clip and summary Meredith Feinstein!

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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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Lots of Econ in This is The End (NSFW)

This is a little NSFW and has some mild language, but it illustrates tradeoffs really well. This is the End is a movie about actors playing fictionalized versions of themselves in an apocalypse. In this season, the actors are trying to decide how to divide their stockpile.

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