Category: 3-EconSometimeCommentary

You might expect to find economic concepts in the pages of an economics textbook. But you know where you can really see a lot of economic concepts in action? Buffets.

Here at Planet Money we believe there's a lot of economics going on at the all-you-eat buffet, tucked in between the mountains of brisket and troughs of mashed potatoes. From classic concepts like adverse selection, sunk costs, diminishing marginal returns, to more exotic economic mysteries, like the flat rate pricing bias.

Today on the show, we're headed to the place where the modern buffet may have been born: Las Vegas. Our mission? To feast ourselves on all the economics we can handle at the all-you-can-eat buffet. And along the way, an economist and fellow buffet-lover will teach us his hyper-rational strategy for optimizing his buffet experience.

Today's show was produced by James Sneed and Nick Fountain with help from Emma Peaslee. It was edited by Jess Jiang, engineered by James Willetts, and fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.

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Right now, a lot of school districts across the country are making a pretty giant change to the way public education usually works. Facing teacher shortages and struggling to fill vacant spots, they are finding a new recruitment tool: the four-day school week.

Those districts are saying to teachers, "You can have three-day weekends all the time, and we won't cut your pay." As of this fall, around 900 school districts – that's about 7% of all districts in the U.S. – now have school weeks that are just four days long.

And this isn't the first time a bunch of schools have scaled back to four days, so there is a lot of data to lean on to figure out how well it works. In this episode, teachers love the four-day school week, and it turns out even parents love it, too. But is it good for students?

This episode was produced by Sam Yellowhorse Kesler with help from Willa Rubin. It was edited by Molly Messick and engineered by Maggie Luthar. Fact-checking by Sierra Juarez. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.

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In the first of two episodes, Zachary Crockett digs into the strange and discomfiting history of cadavers, and the industry that has emerged around them.

 

RESOURCES:

• "From Grave Robbing to Giving Your Own Body to Science – A Short History of Where Medical Schools Get Cadavers," by Susan Lawrence and Susan E. Lederer (The Conversation, 2023).
• "Box of Human Heads Stolen From Truck in Denver," by Carly Moore (FOX4, 2022).
• "A Body Donated to Science - but Used to Test Bombs," by Rozina Sini (BBC News, 2019).
• "How an American Company Made a Fortune Selling Bodies Donated to Science," by John Shiffman and Brian Grow (Reuters, 2017).
• "From Sacrilege to Privilege: The Tale of Body Procurement for Anatomical Dissection in the United States," by Raphael Hulkower (The Einstein Journal of Biology and Medicine, 2011).
• The Anatomy Murders, by Lisa Rosner (2010).

 

SOURCES:

• Kaylan Goodwin, vice president of marketing at Science Care.
• Susan Lawrence, professor and head of the history department at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Union membership in the U.S. has been declining for decades. But, in 2022, support for unions among Americans was the highest it's been in decades. This dissonance is due, in part, to the difficulties of one important phase in the life cycle of a union: setting up a union in the first place. One place where that has been particularly clear is at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Back in 2008, Volkswagen announced that they would be setting up production in the United States after a 20-year absence. They planned to build a new auto manufacturing plant in Chattanooga.

Volkswagen has plants all over the world, all of which have some kind of worker representation, and the company said that it wanted that for Chattanooga too. So, the United Auto Workers, the union that traditionally represents auto workers, thought they would be able to successfully unionize this plant.

They were wrong.

In this episode, we tell the story of the UAW's 10-year fight to unionize the Chattanooga plant. And, what other unions can learn from how badly that fight went for labor.

This episode was hosted by Amanda Aronczyk and Nick Fountain. It was produced by Willa Rubin. It was engineered by Josephine Nyounai, fact-checked by Sierra Juarez, and edited by Keith Romer. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.

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When someone says "the economy is doing well"—what does that even mean? Like, for workers, for employers, for the country as a whole? According to what calculation? How do you put a number on it?

The world of economics is filled with all sorts of "measuring sticks." GDP. Inflation. Unemployment. Consumer sentiment. Over time, all kinds of government agencies, universities and private companies have come up with different ways to measure facets of the economy. These measures factor into all kinds of huge decisions—things like government policy, business strategies, maybe even your personal career choices or investments.

On today's show, we're going to lift the curtain on two of these yardsticks. We are going to meet the people tasked with sticking a number on two huge measures of our economic well being: the official U.S. government inflation report and the monthly unemployment and jobs numbers. Come along and see how the measures get made.

This episode was hosted by Darian Woods, Stacey Vanek Smith, and Wailin Wong. It was produced by Julia Ritchey and Jess Kung with help from James Sneed. Engineering by Gilly Moon and James Willetts. It was fact-checked by Michael He and Corey Bridges, and edited by Kate Concannon and Viet Le. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer.

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Continuing our series on Enviromental Economics, host Jordan Lofthouse chats with Katie Wright about sustainability, extensive and intensive margins, intellectual humility in statistical analysis, how her experience in Mercatus fellowships has aided her research, the nature of the water scarcity problem in the Western United States, and more.

Katherine (Katie) Wright is a research fellow at the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC). She is an expert on water policy and her current work includes exploration of solutions to western water scarcity. Katie is an alum of the Mercatus Oskar Morgenstern Fellowship.

If you like the show, please subscribe, leave a 5-star review, and tell others about the show! We're available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and wherever you get your podcasts.

Virtual Sentiments, our new podcast series from the Hayek Program is now streaming! Subscribe today and listen to season one on digital democracy.

Follow the Hayek Program on Twitter: @HayekProgram

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CC Music: Twisterium

Why are these sudsy roadside stops one of the fastest growing industries in America? Zachary Crockett takes a look under the hood.

 

RESOURCES:

• "Private Equity Wants to Wash Your Car," by Miriam Gottfried (The Wall Street Journal, 2022).
• "California Labor Commissioner Recovers $282,000 for Car Wash Wage Citations," State of California Department of Industrial Relations News Release (2022).
• "Sgt. Clean’s Future Shines Bright Thanks to Subscription Model, Strong Reputation," by Vince Guerrieri (Crain's Cleveland Business, 2018).
• "One California Drought Winner? The Local Car Wash," by Lauren Sommer (Marketplace, 2015).
• Sonny's CarWash College.

 

SOURCES:

• Brian Krusz, co-founder and director of growth & development at Sgt. Clean Car Wash.
• Eric Wulf, C.E.O. of the International Carwash Association.

Note: There is swearing in this episode.

In 2017, The University of Minnesota asked comedian Maria Bamford to give their commencement speech. But the University may not have known what it was in for. In her speech, Bamford told the crowd of graduates how much the university offered to pay her (nothing), her counteroffer ($20,000), and the amount they settled on ($10,000), which (after taxes and fees, etc.) she gave away to students in the audience to pay down their student loans.

Maria Bamford is a big believer in full disclosure of her finances, a philosophy she's adopted after decades in a Debtors Anonymous support group. In meetings, she learned important financial tips and tricks to go from thousands of dollars in debt to her current net worth of $3.5 million (a number which, true to her philosophy, she will share with anyone).

She spoke with us about her financial issues, how she recovered, and why she believes in total financial transparency, even when it makes her look kinda bad.

Disclaimer: Planet Money is not qualified or certified to give financial advice. And Maria is not a spokesperson for Debtors Anonymous in any way.

This show was hosted by Kenny Malone and Mary Childs. It was produced by Emma Peaslee, edited by Jess Jiang, fact-checked by Sierra Juarez, and engineered by Neisha Heinis. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer.

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Prices go up. Occasionally, prices go down. But for 70 years, the price of a bottle of Coca-Cola didn't change. From 1886 until the late 1950s, a bottle of coke cost just a nickel.

On today's show, we find out why. The answer includes a half a million vending machines, a 7.5 cent coin, and a company president who just wanted to get a couple of lawyers out of his office.

This episode originally ran in 2012.

This episode was hosted by David Kestenbaum. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer.

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More people than ever before are getting tattoos — but social media has flipped the trade’s business model on its head. Zachary Crockett dips into the ink.

 

RESOURCES:

• "32% of Americans Have a Tattoo, Including 22% Who Have More Than One," by Katherine Schaeffer and Shradha Dinesh (Pew Research Center, 2023).
• "Tattoo Removal Business Draws Up High-Growth Potential," by Tim Clark (Forbes, 2023).
• "The Secret, Chronic Pain of Tattoo Artists," by Devon Abelman (Allure, 2020).
• The Other End of the Needle: Continuity and Change Among Tattoo Workers, by David C. Lane (2020).
• "How Instagram Revolutionized the Tattoo Industry," by Salvador Rodriguez (CNBC, 2020).
• "How Do Tattoo Artists Get Paid?" by Erica Salvalaggio (Inside Out, 2019).
• "Hey, Pro Athletes: Your Tattoo Is Going to Get You Sued," by Ira Boudway (Bloomberg, 2013).

 

SOURCES:

• Tyler Adams, tattoo artist and owner of Grizzly Tattoo.
• Stacey Martin Smith, tattoo artist.