Homer Economicus
March 19, 2010Jon Brooks 1 Comment »
From The Journal of Private Enterprise, an extract from the paper “Homer Economicus: Using The Simpsons to Teach Economics.”
Bureaucrats and bureaucracy
As Gwartney, Stroup, Sobel and Macpherson (2003, 135) state, “Economic analysis suggests a strong tendency for bureaucrats and public-sector employees to favor expanding their budgets beyond what would be considered economically efficient.” The Simpsons episode titled “Trash of the Titans,” provides a great example of this tendency. After getting into an argument with the garbage men and refusing to apologize, Homer decides to run for Sanitation Commissioner. Running on the slogan “Can’t someone else do it?” Homer wins and institutes a sanitation program that does just about everything for the residents of Springfield, from collecting diapers inside the house to cleaning their ties. This excessive spending leads to the following exchange between Homer and Mayor Quimby.
Quimby: Simpson, you idiot! You spent your entire year’s budget in a month! Your department’s broke!
Homer: [panics) Uh...oh no! Wait! I think I've got the perfect solution.
Quimby: You'd better! 'Cause those garbage men won't work for free!
Homer: D' oh!
Later, Homer and Marge are going over the sanitation department's expenses to figure out how he could have spent so much in such a short
period of time.Homer: Oh... [the previous commissioner] was right! I’m crashing and burning! Crashing and burning!
Marge: How could you spend 4.6 million dollars in a month?
Homer: They let me sign checks with a stamp, Marge! A stamp!
Although a bit over the top in that few (if any) bureaucrats are as stupid as Homer is portrayed to be, this episode of The Simpsons does provide a humorous beginning to a discussion of the incentives facing bureaucrats and bureaucracies.
March 19th, 2010 at 12:33 pm
Take away the stamp!