Thanks for reading Gimme Mo! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. 600 million Robinson Crusoes It takes two to tango. It also takes two to have an economy. If you’re alone, like Robinson Crusoe on a deserted island, there’s not much economics to be had. You can catch fish, or harvest coconuts, or decide to take time off and go for a walk along the beach. You subsist, because the fish in the lagoon give you enough protein to keep some muscle on your body, and the coconut fat keeps the calorie counter ticking. You have sharp reflexes, so your haul of fish is always plentiful, but you hate climbing those palm trees; when the air is still, and the windfall of coconuts sparse, you feel a hunger for carbs and fat that no amount of fish can still. Then you have to lever yourself up the slippery trunk of a palm tree, reach out for those plump brown coconuts, your heart pounding with fear. No matter how much you stretch, they remain out of reach. You shake the frond, and after several dizzying minutes, a sole nut falls to the ground.
Thanks, Mo for a lucid 101 on money the lubricant of economic freedom! Unfortunately, our governments can only dole out 'disguised unemployment' ... How do we create real jobs ?
I think that the real question to ponder is why the 600 million Crusoes don't offer their services to the participative 400 million at a discount to what they may be paying at present? Surely, a factory manager that hires 100 workers at 1 fish per day each would happily hire 150 if only they'll take say half a fish. Is the real problem elsewhere - perhaps regulations, labor laws and minimum wage?
Loved your columns. Thanks for the wonderful analogy. I have a couple of questions:
1) Does the 600 million include the unproductive retired people? Is it fair to consider them?
2) Does this 600m consider home makers as unemployed. To me, I feel the employer of the employed spouse essentially pays for both the employed and the spouse. The employer is paying enough for them to sustain such a lifestyle.
If you consider the above two points to be valid, may be 600 will become 300, and % unemployed will reduce from 60% to 30% (Not to say that 30% is a good number.)
Thanks, Mo for a lucid 101 on money the lubricant of economic freedom! Unfortunately, our governments can only dole out 'disguised unemployment' ... How do we create real jobs ?
Good answer.
Hi there
I believe I'm better off being alone on the island.
They're.
I'm having ONLY Thirty percent in Hybrid Fund.
Others are debt fund OR FD.
Hope I'm okay.
Anyway I am a small fish.
I like reading your columns.
Please do continue.
I never thought someone can teach economics through a English literature.
Thanks for the new perspective..
Mohit, thanks for illuminating an otherwise confusing and dry topic with prose that is anything but prosaic!
I think that the real question to ponder is why the 600 million Crusoes don't offer their services to the participative 400 million at a discount to what they may be paying at present? Surely, a factory manager that hires 100 workers at 1 fish per day each would happily hire 150 if only they'll take say half a fish. Is the real problem elsewhere - perhaps regulations, labor laws and minimum wage?
Hi Mohit,
Loved your columns. Thanks for the wonderful analogy. I have a couple of questions:
1) Does the 600 million include the unproductive retired people? Is it fair to consider them?
2) Does this 600m consider home makers as unemployed. To me, I feel the employer of the employed spouse essentially pays for both the employed and the spouse. The employer is paying enough for them to sustain such a lifestyle.
If you consider the above two points to be valid, may be 600 will become 300, and % unemployed will reduce from 60% to 30% (Not to say that 30% is a good number.)
Thanks Mohit: Sunil Agarwal