Monkey Capitalism

Mrs. Weer’d sent me this hilarious and educational video:

Now I want to see more footage of that experiment, as I want to see how long before the monkey stops working until he starts tasting grapes. Still while the researcher is talking morality and fairness, I see it as a lesson in economics. The monkeys are willing to work for cucumbers, finest kind…until somebody starts paying in grapes. Then Cucumbers become shit. Monkey #1 notices his job is WORTH a grape, so he now wants grapes.

But he didn’t THINK he was worth a grape, or didn’t think grapes were even in the discussion. I remember as a child talking with a younger child about outsourcing. When I mentioned that people were shipping jobs to Mexico where they did the work for less money, he was amazed. “What are they, stupid?”

Well no, first money goes further in Mexico, but also without our minimum wage laws, people value their time and effort on an individual scale rather than a scale determined by a stranger.

The barter system is similar. I traded a Mosin Nagant for a Jennings J-22 with Jay. Jay was happy to be rid of it, and wanted him a Mosin to play with. I have a surplus of Mosins, but I didn’t have a “Saturday Night Special”, and in Massachusetts they can be hard to come by. We both felt we got a better deal because we’re both different people.

Also this got me thinking about this quote from Joe:

How is it people can think communism is viable when even very small children and animals defend their property and territory?

A dog that is otherwise docile will bit your hand if you attempt to take his bowl away when he’s eating. We need to teach children to share with others. Also when you first teach a child to share, they will quickly attempt to use that rule for their selfish benefit. You’ll see little Connor playing with Little Madison. Connor will want Madison’s toy, and they turn to the adult and say “Madison isn’t sharing!” Government redistribution of wealth! But that’s only once they learn that the authority figure can take something away and give it to another person.

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