Economy
Discover facts about economy. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Economy
Feudal serfs were tied to the land and could not move
Because quitting your job is impossible when your boss literally owns the dirt you stand on. Medieval laborers were legally bound to their local lord's…
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Governments can seize private homes for public use
Because your deed is really just a polite suggestion. Under the guise of eminent domain, state authorities can legally force you out of your house, demolish…
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Why silent plays still need musicians
Because strong union rules mean you pay the piper even if there is no pipe. Decades-old labor agreements force certain massive theaters to employ a minimum…
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Politicians waste millions in taxpayer dollars by talking
Because halting legislative action by reading the phone book is a proud tradition. The act of the filibuster grinds the entire apparatus of government to a…
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Putting a man on the moon consumed massive federal budgets
Because beating a geopolitical rival to a barren rock was worth any expense. At its peak, the Apollo program swallowed a wildly disproportionate percentage of…
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Americans spend $700 million dressing up pets
If aliens ever judge our species' allocation of resources, this is the data point that will rightfully doom us. As late-stage capitalism tightens its grip and…
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Dating apps don't create romance—they create the meeting place
Some businesses exist entirely to sit in the middle and introduce people. A two-sided market creates value by matching two distinct user groups who need each…
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Growing societies must get worse before getting better
Progress apparently requires dragging everyone through a temporary nightmare. The Kuznets curve hypothesizes that as an agrarian society transitions into an…
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Nobody wants to change their mind in equilibrium
Imagine a Mexican standoff where putting your gun down guarantees you lose. A Nash Equilibrium occurs when every participant in a system has chosen a path,…
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How RuneScape taught a generation about markets
An entire generation of adults intuitively understands supply and demand purely because they chopped imaginary yew trees in 2005. Runescape introduced a…
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When Diablo III turned into a marketplace
Making things too convenient can utterly destroy the underlying purpose of a system. When Diablo III launched, it featured an auction house where players…
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America once wanted to farm hippos in Louisiana
In 1910, America faced a massive meat shortage and an overgrowth of invasive water hyacinths in southern swamps. A serious proposal was pushed to import herds…
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Everyone involved in a negative-sum game loses everything
Welcome to the absolute worst possible outcome of human interaction, where participating guarantees a net loss for the entire universe. In a negative-sum…
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Trading apples for oranges magically creates value
Swapping things around somehow makes the world objectively richer without creating anything new. A positive-sum game happens when two parties exchange items…
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Mathematical squares prove trades benefit both parties
Economists love trapping abstract human desires inside literal geometry. The Edgeworth box is a theoretical diagram used to show how two people with different…
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How self-interest can keep society running
You do not get dinner because the butcher loves you; you get dinner because the butcher loves their own livelihood. The Invisible Hand theory suggests that…
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Australia unleashed cane toads to fight beetles
Trying to outsmart nature usually results in nature completely dominating you. Australia introduced the massive cane toad in 1935 to eat beetles that were…
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Graphing exactly how unequal society's pie gets sliced
Some lines on a chart exist purely to remind you how wildly unfair the universe is. The Lorenz curve is a graphical representation of resource distribution…
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Why people give away money in the Dictator Game
You would think giving someone total control would turn them into a greedy monster, but guilt is a funny thing. In the Dictator Game, one person is given full…
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Why rival ice-cream stands end up side by side
If you have ever wondered why three identical pharmacies are built on the exact same intersection, blame Hotelling's model. If two ice cream stands start on…
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Why hyper-logical players lose at the Centipede Game
Overthinking is the ultimate killer of mutual prosperity. The Centipede Game involves two players taking turns deciding whether to take a small reward now or…
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Bribing your noisy neighbor to finally turn off the stereo
Sometimes the most efficient way to solve a dispute is just to buy your opponent's cooperation. The Coase theorem suggests that if transaction costs are low,…
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The $90 million website paid off until 2040
Domain squatting is the most lucrative passive income stream ever accidentally invented. In 2005, the company Vegas.com decided they needed the ultimate…
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Bubble wrap was supposed to be wallpaper
Imagine trying to decorate your upscale mid-century living room with walls that pop when you lean against them. In 1957, two engineers sealed two shower…
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