Comments on: Economic Literacy in Fiction http://organizationsandmarkets.com/2006/09/05/economic-literacy-in-fiction/ Economics of organizations, strategy, entrepreneurship, innovation, and more Sun, 12 Feb 2012 08:11:55 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Peter Klein http://organizationsandmarkets.com/2006/09/05/economic-literacy-in-fiction/#comment-73380 Mon, 16 Mar 2009 16:17:33 +0000 http://organizationsandmarkets.wordpress.com/2006/09/05/economic-literacy-in-fiction/#comment-73380 Yes, I caught that part. (“If you’ve seen the film, you know that the inhabitants actually have more advanced technological knowledge than they pretend to have.”) That explains the initial investment, and perhaps continuing cash inflows. But what about the allocation of resources within the village? There aren’t any relative prices, right? The Misesian calculation problem’s still there. (Or perhaps you’re saying they’re rich enough that they can afford to be inefficient.)

Some enterprising grad student needs to write a dissertation on this.

]]> By: nicolai foss http://organizationsandmarkets.com/2006/09/05/economic-literacy-in-fiction/#comment-73378 Mon, 16 Mar 2009 12:04:55 +0000 http://organizationsandmarkets.wordpress.com/2006/09/05/economic-literacy-in-fiction/#comment-73378 Peter, Re the puzzle re The Village: I think the answer may be that there is a massive amount of money outside of the village that in actuality supports the village. Notice at the end of the movie how the rangers that look after the wild life reservation come from a company called “Walker”. It is also indicated that a Walker family foundation has been instrumental in setting up the wildlige reservation. The name of the leading Elder is also Walker. Thus, the highly inefficient autartic village survives because of a long purse outside the village.

]]> By: Hine Te Po http://organizationsandmarkets.com/2006/09/05/economic-literacy-in-fiction/#comment-2212 Tue, 05 Sep 2006 23:52:03 +0000 http://organizationsandmarkets.wordpress.com/2006/09/05/economic-literacy-in-fiction/#comment-2212 Science fiction is simply that – a fictional presentation of a future state. An economy in a science fictional world need only conform to the fictional laws of that particular world. Thus, in a fictional universe, inhabited by fictional characters – where space travel is the norm – the existence of an irrational economy – is to be expected. Simple logic really.

]]> By: Donald A. Coffin http://organizationsandmarkets.com/2006/09/05/economic-literacy-in-fiction/#comment-2211 Tue, 05 Sep 2006 22:07:41 +0000 http://organizationsandmarkets.wordpress.com/2006/09/05/economic-literacy-in-fiction/#comment-2211 The same is true, in a lot of ways, about almost all science fiction (indeed, about almost all fiction)–the depiction of how people go about earning what they earn and supporting their consumption standard is almost never at the center of the work. I defy anyone to make sense of the economics of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series. Heinlein was better, but only marginally. But do we read or watch these things for what they have to say about economics anyway? (For another television example, see Friends. Or Seinfeld.)

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