Stan and Kyle on the economy

If, like me, you happen to be a "South Park" fan, you have probably seen the episode entitled "Margaritaville." If you either 1) are not a South Park fan, or 2) have not seen the episode, I recommend you watch it. You can do so by going to the South Park Studios website. Here is the link to the entire episode. Here's a summary of the plot. The people of South Park collectively have a rather odd reaction to current economic events, and they stop spending money, especially on frivolous items. Kyle, one of the kids who is a main character, sees this as a ridiculous overreaction. Meanwhile, Stan, another of the kids who is a main character, tries to return for a refund a Margaritaville margarita machine that his dad bought. In the process, Stan learns about some of the things that caused our current economic circumstances. And while that is going on, Kyle sums up economics in a speech to the citizens of South Park.

Now, I realize that some folks will find South Park generally and parts of this episode specifically offensive, particularly because of some language (4th graders cussing) and the fact that the Kyle arc of the episode is based on some of the Gospel stories about Jesus. So maybe some folks will not want to watch the whole episode. If that is the case, you can go to this link, which has clips from the episode. The key clips are as follows: Improbable, But Not Impossible; Yeah, No. Yeah.; Plastic Cards and Paper Money; 90 Trillion Dollars; and Bailout!; "Plastic Cards and Paper Money" is really the most important one for my purpose, but the others are also important.

My purpose is to follow up on my previous post and help explain some of what I will be writing in the near future regarding the economy. Kyle's speech in "Plastic Cards" is one way to explain my "can opener."