Andy has decided to take a class at the local community college and April is helping him look through the catalog. Ron encourages him to take a course in a new subject and broaden his horizons, but April thinks he should take an easy class to get an A.
See more: education, effort minimization, human capital, incentives, labor, signalling, skill building
Andy is ready to register for his first college course, but is shocked by the cost of one class. He then decides to pick up a second job before Ron offers to pay for his class.
See more: cost of college, education, human capital
The Reasonablists are having their end-of-life party in the local park and Ron sees an opportunity to sell his high quality wooden flutes. Because the party springs up without notice, Ron sees a sudden spike in demand for his flutes. The leader of the Reasonabilists offers Ron a check because they don’t believe it will have any value the next day, but Ron has been selling them flutes for each of their previous going away parties.
See more: demand, demand shifts, elasticity, expectations, inelastic, M2, markets, medium of exchange, money, normal goods, preferences, store of value, transactions, unit of account
Ron finds a typewriter out by the dumpster, but the noise of the machine bothers everyone in the office. While it makes him happy, he’s not taking into consideration the costs he is imposing on everyone else.
See more: externalities, private benefits, private costs, social benefits, social costs
Ben and Chris come into town from Indianapolis to help cut the town’s budget because of their pending financial situation. Ben suggests firing Leslie to relieve some of the spending associated with the inflated budget, but Ron describes how valuable Leslie is to the department and how she’s worth her salary. He basically argues that her marginal productivity vastly exceeds her salary despite making the second largest salary in the department.
See more: derived demand, government shutdown, government spending, marginal product, marginal revenue product, total wage bill, types of income, value
Pawnee is going through a bit of a budget crises and they have decided to cut the Parks Department budget so that no parks will be open over the summer break. This also means that a previously-planned concert needed to be canceled as well. The citizens of Pawnee want to know what services the government will provide if they are shut down. Ron relishes in the fact that the services aren’t provided.
See more: common resources, government shutdown, government spending, public resources, role of government, types of goods
Pawnee is going through a budget crisis so Leslie and Ron propose a list of budget cuts that they believe will help keep the Parks Department operation. Chris and Ben break the news that the city’s budget is worse than imagined and the government will need to shut down despite their efforts to keep it operating.
See more: bargaining, government shutdown, government spending, tradeoffs
Pawnee, Indiana is going through a budget crises and the city has decided to postpone all planning and spending decisions until the state auditors come by to review their budgets. While this terrifies Leslie, Ron is happy that state auditors are coming to slash the Pawnee budget because he feels government spending has gotten out of hand.
See more: government shutdown, government spending, role of government, social programs
Ron and Leslie ponder why people would eat anything other than breakfast. While they understand their own utility functions, they struggle to understand others.
See more: intrinsic value, preference ranking, preferences, subjective value, utility, utility maximization
Ron invites Mark over to his workshop because he needs a license in order to continue selling products. Ron describes how he shouldn’t have to follow government regulations about toxic chemicals because he’s the only one breathing the fumes. If he isn’t bothering others then he doesn’t feel the need to be regulated.
See more: externalities, government regulation, licensing, private costs, regulation, safety regulations, social costs
Economics of Parks & Recreation 