Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Spongebob's Supply and Demand

The topic of the week in Econ is supply and demand.  I can't think of a better example of supply and demand than in an episode of Spongebob Squarepants.  In this particular episode, Mr. Krabs, an economist if there ever was one, is having a yard sale.  He convinces Spongebob to buy a hat that holds soda cans and has straws connecting to the mouth for people that would like to drink their soda in a hands-free situation. Believing it is totally worthless, Mr. Krabs tells Spongebob that it once belonged to Smitty Werbenjagermanjensen, and that "he was number 1!" Rumors surface that the hat is the last of its kind, and it is very valuable.  Someone offers one million dollars to Spongebob for the hat, but he declines because it belongs to Smitty.  Mr. Krabs is beside himself for selling such a rare and valuable hat.  However, the following day, a warehouse is discovered that contains dozens of the hat, and all of the sudden the price drops drastically and the hat is basically worthless.  The demand for the hat was high because the supply was thought to be low, so the price skyrocketed.  But once the supply increased, both the demand and price dropped drastically.

1 comment:

  1. Wow. This may have been the best idea ever conceived in Mr. Stewart's class. I really enjoyed the fact that you took a topic from class and applied it to something we could all relate to. It's a great example about how number of buyers can affect the price of an object.

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