Teaching Economics with Media
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 receiving a donation request from his undergraduate university, Mulaney questions the purpose of college. After spending $120,000 to major in English, he realizes that he may not have actually gotten out of it what he thought he would (human capital), but instead received a lot of consumptive benefits. He doesn’t mention the signalling aspect of a college degree, but it’s implied through his analysis on the lack of training he received.
Coogie Johnson rides up to the corner store to get a grape pop and beef jerky. Habib, the store owner, tells him it’s $1.00 for the soda and $1.75 for the jerky. Coogie then tries to talk Habib down to letting him pay $0.25 for soda and pay full price for the jerky to which his son nodded in approval. Even though the retail price for the soda and the jerky are $1.00 and $1.75, respectively. Coogie knows that the soda is priced well above the marginal cost and attempts to negotiate the price down closer to the marginal cost. Habib argues that it’s not fair to charge him a different price than other customers, but the son recognizes that some profit is better than no profit and agrees to sell it to Coogie at a lower price.
Thanks to Kyle Davis for the reference.
Chris’s grandfather gives him a rare dollar bill for his birthday, but Chris doesn’t know about it at the time. The entire episode follows this dollar bill through the city of Quahog and shows the variety of people that interact with the same dollar. The concept of the velocity of money focuses on how many times a single bill can circulate throughout the economy. When a dollar is creator, assuming it isn’t leaked through the money system, it’s value is much more than the actual dollar amount at which it’s printed.
This clip is 10 minutes long (out of a 20-minute episode). There are some parts that may not be suitable for the classroom, so please watch in its entirety before showing in class.
Thanks to Michael Coon for the submission! Check him out on Twitter!
Louis, played by Dan Aykroyd in Trading Places, is trying to earn some cash by selling is premium Swiss sports watch, but the Philadelphia owner isn’t seeing its value. Louis reluctantly agrees to sell for well below the original price.
You don’t like pickles, but your friend does? That works out well for these two as Buckwheat buys Porky’s pickle from him for 2 cents. What a quick example for a mutually beneficial transactions.
Homer is looking forward to eating the last peanut and goes to toss it in mouth, but he misses and it falls behind the couch. He starts digging under the couch and finds a $20 dollar bill and is initially upset about not finding the last peanut. Homer then goes through the thought process of how money could be exchanged for goods and services and now he can buy many peanuts.
Thanks for the clip Lauren Dempsey!
Jason Bourne, played by Matt Damon, asks a cash-strapped young woman (Franka Potente) for a lift while Conklin (Chris Cooper) musters all of his forces to find him. Both parties have something that the other one needs, so a mutually beneficial trade occurs. This clip really highlights the concept of double coincidence of wants.