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 believes that the government should be operated by private enterprise (like Chuck E. Cheese) that uses a token system to participate, like taking a walk, going down a slide, or seeing a duck. This would take a previously nonexclusive good and turn it into one that must be purchased to be consumed.
See more: capitalism, common resources, exclusivity, private goods, profit maximization, public goods, types of goods
In an effort to get Sweet-ums out of Pawnee Parks, Leslie and Ann hold a town hall meeting. Both Leslie and Ron try to frame their questions to get citizens to vote their way.
See more: behavioral, framing, private incentives, rent seeking, voting
Ron believes that governments are a waste of taxpayer money and should be run more like private (for-profit) companies. Later he suggests that parks could operate on a token system so that anyone wanting to use the park would need to pay for their use.
See more: common resources, exclusivity, government, private goods, profit maximization, public goods, rivalry, role of government, types of goods
Most firms want workers who are hard working and dedicated, but Ron believes Tom is the best government employee because he doesn’t have those qualities. Tom’s ability to shirk would probably get him fired in most companies, but Ron sees things a bit differently.
See more: government, incentives, principle agent problem, private incentives, shirking, social incentives
Ron believes in a very limited government and describes his idea of government as a single employee with the power to start war. This clip can be used to show the extremes of the what role a government should have.
See more: government, national defense, public goods
Ann and Leslie are trying to convince local residents that a park would be a good alternative to a giant pit located near their homes. The two of them realize they aren’t getting as many responses as they were hoping so Leslie decides to re-frame the question in the hopes of getting respondents to answer the way she would like them to.
See more: behavioral, framing, public goods, survey bias, tradeoffs
Ron and Leslie meet for lunch to settle a bet, but not before Ron extolls the virtues of capitalism and competition in the free market. Leslie, of course, disagrees on the role of government because she recognizes that not all services can be provided private enterprise.
See more: capitalism, competition, externalities, free market, government, public economics, public goods, role of government
Economics of Parks & Recreation 