Carl Barks, professor of economics
lgiver@postoffice.pacbell.net
lgiver at postoffice.pacbell.net
Mon Jul 29 10:42:58 CEST 2002
Still more discussion of money, value, economics, etc. At the end of
his seminar, HorizonHse asks "how did we get on this topic?" Clearly,
Scrooge is very interested in money, value, and economics, and this
interest is transmitted to his readers and fans. Indeed, Carl Barks was
truly my first professor of economics. Consider one of the early Donald
Duck 10-page stories that had Scrooge: "A Financial Fable" C&S 126,
March 1951. Donald is unhappy with his job working on Scrooge's farm,
and wishes for a windfall of riches. But to not be greedy just for
himself, he wished that everyone could have a million dollars, and then
no one would have to work. And that's what happened when a tornado
emptied Scrooge's 3 cubic acre corn-crib money bin, putting all that
cash in many other people's hands and back into circulation. Then
since many people were instantly rich, they perceived they no longer
have to work for money and quit their jobs. With very few people
working, the economy came to a stand-still, and scarcity followed. With
lots of money in circulation, but very few goods (Scrooge's farm was the
last source of food), a huge inflation followed. Donald had to spend
his million dollars to get a few things to eat and beg Uncle Scrooge to
give him his job back. I learned all this economic stuff from this
story and many others by Carl Barks---it certainly wasn't taught in the
schools. So I expect this is true for other fans, too--knowledge of
financial and economic things entered our heads at an early age from
reading Scrooge stories by Carl Barks.
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