Category: Characters

Tom the Entrepreneur

2017

Tom fancies himself an entrepreneur and lists off a variety of different business ideas he has. Throughout the series, Tom comes up with different business ideas, but this is just a subset of his ideas that he names during the premier of his alcoholic beverage, Snake Juice. Most of his ideas though are really just variances of other products so Tom is focusing on differentiating the businesses to serve niche markets.

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Eagleton Pride

2017

Neighboring city, Eagleton, has decided to build a fence around a small park they used to share with the citizens of Pawnee. Throughout the episode, we learn of various quality-of-life factors that Eagleton excels in relative to Pawnee. Things like obesity, height, income, wealth, and life expectancy are all much higher than in Pawnee, and the citizens of Eagleton want to keep it that way.

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93 Meetings

2017

April accidentally schedules all of Ron’s meetings for March 31st because she doesn’t think it’s a real day. Instead, Ron has to deal with a variety of concerned citizens, many of whom are causing externalities throughout the city.

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Cologne Cloud

2017

Tom wants to look good, and smell good, for Jessica Newport so he decides to sit for a few minutes in his “cologne cloud.” The smell is so overpowering though that Leslie needs to exit the car immediately. While Tom feels be benefits are worth the smell, Leslie isn’t a fan of the external effects.

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The Pawnee Video Dome is Failing

2017

The Pawnee Video Dome is failing and going out of business. Leslie is trying to find tax breaks to keep him afloat, but Ron says the market is signaling that the company is not providing enough value to consumers and deserves to fail. If companies provide a social good (like intellectual conversations) then governments may step in and subsidize the production of the service.

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Joan’s Opinion

2017

Leslie goes on Pawnee Today to talk about the City Council’s approval ratings. Joan Callamezzo is not at her best and describes the situation as a fact when it’s really her opinion. This is a good opening segue to discussing normative vs positive statements.

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Soda Sizes

2017

Leslie meets with Kathryn Pinewood to discuss the sizes of sodas sold at the local restaurants. Leslie, as city council member, doesn’t believe that this move by local businesses is good for the health of her community. Local restaurants have gotten creative in marketing the larger sodas by offering price discounts when customers by large volumes. Despite framing the larger sizes with more normal names, Leslie is confused why people would keep purchasing that much soda.

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Soda Taxes

2017

Leslie’s first act as a city councilwoman is to implement a soda tax because she believes that it will make Pawnee healthier. The new larger sodas are causing obesity in town and Leslie aims to regulate the market through taxes. Depending on the size of the local elasticity, there may not be much of a change in consumption, but it could mean additional revenue for the city.

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Care Package

2017

Ben and April are in DC while Ben is serving as a congressional intern, but both receive care packages from their significant others while away. Andy is running out of clean clothes and includes this in his most recent care package to April. While Ben’s care packs from Leslie aren’t as strange, April’s includes Andy’s dirty laundry because she is so much better at doing laundry than he is. Andy feel’s April has a comparative advantage in laundry despite being so far apart from each other.

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