Monsters Inc.
Monsters Inc.
Monsters Inc. might just be seen as a Pixar animated kid’s movie when you first see it, but when you look deeper into it, you can see many similarities to general economic concepts, as well as our economy today. There are two totally different worlds in the movie; there is the world of the monsters and then there is the world of the humans, however, the monsters have to rely on the humans to survive. The monsters have to steal the screams of human children to use as a source of energy that the monsters use to power their homes, cars and any other electronic devices; and they do this through a corporation called Monsters Inc. Unfortunately, in the movie the world is starting to change and the kids are becoming less sensitive to violence which then causes a shortage of screams in the monster world which then leads to a shortage of energy in the monster world.
Surprisingly, Monsters Inc. isn’t the only place that we see an energy crisis; the rolling power blackouts in California in 2001 are extremely similar. The blackouts in California were due to a lack of supply because of the cold winter and the exploiting population in urban areas in California. The cold winter forced everyone to turn up their heat sharply which then caused a spike in demand; and at this same time the entire west half of the U.S was having dramatically less rainfall than usual throughout that winter which didn’t help either because they rely largely on hydroelectric power. Because of this, the nation’s most populous state and the center of the nation’s technology industry couldn’t rely on hydroelectric power, which then in turn caused a shortage. Therefore California experienced multiple blackouts during a few days period due to the lack on conservation of energy (Konrad). Even though the energy crisis in Monsters Inc. is not due to weather problems, it is a very similar situation. Right from the beginning, we see that the movie starts out with an obvious economic
Monsters Inc. might just be seen as a Pixar animated kid’s movie when you first see it, but when you look deeper into it, you can see many similarities to general economic concepts, as well as our economy today. There are two totally different worlds in the movie; there is the world of the monsters and then there is the world of the humans, however, the monsters have to rely on the humans to survive. The monsters have to steal the screams of human children to use as a source of energy that the monsters use to power their homes, cars and any other electronic devices; and they do this through a corporation called Monsters Inc. Unfortunately, in the movie the world is starting to change and the kids are becoming less sensitive to violence which then causes a shortage of screams in the monster world which then leads to a shortage of energy in the monster world.
Surprisingly, Monsters Inc. isn’t the only place that we see an energy crisis; the rolling power blackouts in California in 2001 are extremely similar. The blackouts in California were due to a lack of supply because of the cold winter and the exploiting population in urban areas in California. The cold winter forced everyone to turn up their heat sharply which then caused a spike in demand; and at this same time the entire west half of the U.S was having dramatically less rainfall than usual throughout that winter which didn’t help either because they rely largely on hydroelectric power. Because of this, the nation’s most populous state and the center of the nation’s technology industry couldn’t rely on hydroelectric power, which then in turn caused a shortage. Therefore California experienced multiple blackouts during a few days period due to the lack on conservation of energy (Konrad). Even though the energy crisis in Monsters Inc. is not due to weather problems, it is a very similar situation. Right from the beginning, we see that the movie starts out with an obvious economic
References: -Macroeconomics; A Contemporary Introduction. William McEachern (my macro text book) -Rolling Power Blackouts Darken California. Rachel Konrad. http://news.cnet.com/2100-1017-251091.html