Sunday, May 4, 2008
Economics in Sweeny Todd
I'm sure this title got some people's attention (Marty) but I really just got the brilliant idea to show economics through the example of Sweeny Todd. As anyone who's seen the movie Sweeny Todd knows, the main characters (Ms. Lovett and Sweeny Todd) kill patrons of the baber shop and then bake them into pies in the meat pie shop. I see this killing of patrons as an increase in the supply of meat. Since human meat has a different taste, Ms. Lovett no longer makes "The Worst Pies in London" and an increase in demand is caused. Now I know that Sweeny Todd is not a typical "economic topic" but I thought it applied in this instance.
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3 comments:
ha ha, that is a wonderful observation. way to take the pretty sick plot of sweeney todd and turn it into economics. obviously they get whatever money the people brought with them too (and they must have brought some sort of money to pay for the haircut.) so not only are they getting more money for their delicious meat pies, but they are also getting their costumers cash. nice work.
That...is kind of sick. :) But a great analysis! I haven't seen it yet, but it is one of my favorite plays (yes, I'm sick, too...).
Meat pie, anyone?
Yes, m'dear, you are right in presuming that such a topic would catch my attention...
An added bonus is that even though firms producing meat pies were free to enter and exit the market as they pleased, no one else was using human flesh as an input. Therefore, Mrs. Lovett was at an advantage by having an increased supply when no one else did (with the exception of Mrs. Mooney and her pussycat pies). So although the supply did increase in a sense, it was only for this one particular firm, as it was the only one innovative enough to resort to cannabalism.
So my question is, how is the industry graph affected versus the individual firm graph? Does the entire industry graph show an increase in supply, or is it not wholly affected because no other firms have realized the supply?
I never thought about what would happen if just one firm had an increase in supply in what would normally be a perfectly competitive (or would the products differ enough that it'd be monopolistically competitive?) market structure..
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