Tip of the hat to Andrew Criscione for sharing this video with the Mises Institute facebook page.
More wisdom than most CNBC content.
Source link: http://archive.mises.org/14018/truth-in-cartoons/
Truth in Cartoons
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{ 22 comments }
This is just proof that no one’s behaviors are changed by television. A large number of people who watched that episode still think more money in circulation is a good thing.
I think children do actually grasp this stuff pretty quickly, almost intuitively. Their common sense is then educated out of them.
This misses the point. The problem with inflation isn’t that prices go up. Hell, you could multiply everyone’s bank account by 1000 and that wouldn’t really hurt, would it. The problem is that the people printing the money consume more than they produce.
I think the problem is that the duplicated money does not happen to everyone at the same time, and in the same amount. Adding three zeros to every account in the globe (and every physical store of money, every credit, and every debit) might not change things much But that’s not how the Fed’s duplicated money works. It hits different sectors at different times, prices move upward, wages are sticky… Savings accounts and Mortgages don’t get multiplied.
Well, that’s perfectly explainable by observing the obvious fact that there can’t have been a liquidity trap in Duckberg and/or the local economy was already at full capacity so production couldn’t be increased to cope with all the new demand, which otherwise would’ve been a tremendous boon for all concerned. Obviously different to the situation today, so clearly there’s no problem with Helicopter Ben and the Fed, all is well, QE funny money won’t lead to inflation. Blackwhite.
I like this, mostly because I like Duck Tales. Still, I’m inclined to think that the “chaos” Scrooge McDuck spoke of wasn’t really shown. The problem shown was that people had to lug around big piles of coin.
There was no demonstration of reality by showing sticky wages. Nor did we see Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Fenton outbid productive people for the same goods and services. Those four represent the unproductive–the specially granted sectors of the economy that the new money flows into.
Instead, we was that things generally went along as normal: The old man still rides the bus. The bus driver still collects his wage. The boy still has a job selling papers.
The three ducklings are seen with a short burst of puchrasing power before they learn the coins can self-replicate.
Duckberg got Zimbabwed!
rofl. Guys, it’s a cartoon, not an intellectual tome. It’s not like the producers likely knew the Austrian Theory of the Business Cycle and put it in the cartoon. Don’t take it so seriously.
I agree with you completely. The cartoon at the very least lays the foundation for questioning “money cranks” in the minds of the little ones. That is so much more than what public and private schools are doing. Tale Spin was also another Disney show that had episodes praising market competition and denouncing gov’t bureaucracy.
This was a big improvement over a Thundercats episode which partially, but not fully, praised an intergalactic environmentalist agency. They would come out of nowhere and punished anyone doing harm to the environment, even if no one lay claim to the property.
I recently watched an episode of TaleSpin in which a new robotic pilot is invented; because of its lower cost and higher efficiency, the jobs of all the pilots are in danger and its up to baloo to get them back. Needless to say, totally onesided. There is one scene which bothers me in particular in which a long queue of dejected pilots files into the unemployment office.
Then I remembered it was a cartoon, so I let it go; but I was pissed for a second.
Yes. That episode of robotic pilots is bad from an economic perspective.
I was thinking of a better episode: the one where Baloo’s employer starts a mid-air refueling service. Pilots save money and time because they do not have to stop to refuel on an island owned by Louie. Louie gets mad and competes. In the end, the customer gets free food and fuel from competing floating diners.
There is a gov’t inspector who is “concerned” these diners are not safe. Luckily, he does not do much harm.
Unfortunately, Baloo violates the private property rights of his employer, Rebecca, by blowing it up to “save” his friendship with Louie, the competitor.
Maybe one day there will be a section in the forums or on Mises/Facebook about the good and bad interpretations of economics in pop art. With sub-sections: “An Anarcho-Capitalist Watchs The Cartoon Network” or “Hans Hoppe Watches MTV”.
Roderick Long already covers comic books and sci-fi movies: http://www.aaeblog.com
Would be better without the erroneous www. And, although the fiat money created by the Fed won’t likely “implode,” it could still collapse.
It seems that the cartoon focused primarily on the problems of hyperinflation, and not on the problems of inflation itself. Still, it’s a good lesson.
Cheers,
Alex Peak
“www.mises.org” both works and (in my opinion)looks better.
I’m all about eliminating wwws from URLs.
Alex
Eliminating them, or just “hiding” them? There’s a difference. Hiding them may seem to streamline things, but it also makes it a little more mysterious, especially if problems arise.
http://www.ibankcoin.com/peanut_gallery/index.php/2010/09/26/prepare-to-have-your-mind-blown/
What’s great about this video is that inflation is not described merely as an increase in prices due to manipulation of the money supply, but the fact that money has lost its value.
Did anyone else have a big lol at the last scene?
“That’ll be $40,000 per [cavity] filling!”
“Well, at least some prices haven’t gone up …”
ROFL!
Funny cartoon. I like the “easy money” warning. But this is also a general truth: What is easily gained, doesn’t have the same value as what is hard earned.
There a version of this with just the blurb at the end and not all of the interjections in between?
Guys, you’re missing the big lesson.
Who was the guy who wasn’t hit hard by this hyperinflation?
Who was the guy with THE GIANT TOWER FILLED WITH GOLD (which he swims in from time to time)?
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