Top 10 Things Economists Think the Economy Is
Recent reports have found that most economists believe that the economy will recover quite strongly following the world-ending novel coronavirus. While this sounds like good news, it should also be mentioned that these same economists do not believe that wages or employment rates will recover, which really makes you wonder what economists think the economy is. It’s not an easy task to get into the mindset of an economist, but I took Econ For Everyone so why not give it a whirl, here are the top 10 things that economists think the economy is:
10. An oil rig
Starting off our list, I’d say many economists probably think the economy is just an oil rig, or perhaps even many oil rigs that together make one oil barron. To them, the economy is just a means of measuring how much oil is being extracted and stuffed down the collective human throat. Economy good means lots of oil, economy bad means not as much oil.
9. A Wii U
In 9th place, I believe some economists think the economy is a Wii U. There were better consoles before it and there are better consoles after it, but it works for them so they’re gonna stick with it.
8. A Clock
The economy is always ticking on, never stopping or resting for just a moment. That’s also what time does by definition.
7. A Variety Pack of Holiday Socks
Some economists think that this is the economy. It’s actually just socks, but they would say something about elastic demand.
6. A Quentin Tarantino Film
“It’s kinda like this movie, you probably haven’t seen it, Pulp Fiction. It’s just this indie movie about like gangsters and stuff, you should check it.”
5. Ikea
Halfway through the list and it’s actually not very hard to think about what things might be the economy. Ikea could be the economy.
4. God
He decides the tides, why wouldn’t he decide how much bread costs?
3. A cookie jar that sometimes has a few bucks in it
The economy is a wonderful mystery to economists: a fantastic puzzle that they will never solve. Sometimes an oreo comes out, sometimes a toppled government comes out.
2. A Bunch of Kings on a hill who decided how much gold was worth
This one has historical precedence so I’ll give them that.
1. A Magic lightboard that says how much money there is total
This is a great little knick knack for economists to have. It tells them how much money there is (total), which is always a lot. Sometimes it goes down a little if things get dicey, but then they can just say that actually, less money is worth more than more money. If you make $3.50 / hour (which technically I do) then that’s okay because the lightboard still says there’s a bunch of money (total), so you (me) shouldn’t worry about making half the federal minimum wage because things are looking up.
Editor-in-Chief, 2021-22
