So I’m watching Season One of The Wire. There’s a scene where McNulty trails Stringer Bell to his Intro To Macroeconomics class. In the class, the lecture is on elasticity.
I can’t tell you how disappointmented I was by this. Everyone knows that elasticity is a micro concept! Am I right? Huh?(*)
My goodness, if they’re messing that up, my belief in the realism of the show is totally shaken! If they’re slippin on stuff like that, who knows what they’re getting wrong with the smack trade.
This must be how Diana Ross when she finds out the Wiz is actually Richard Pryor.
*-I’m fully aware that no one gives a damn about this but me and a handful of other socially maladjusted beings. We’re called economists.
11 Comments
by lady B
and marketers. elasticity is sooo micro… ‘sigh. that’s as bad as that scene in armageddon where they describe that guy as graduating summa cum laude from MIT. everyone knows MIT doesn’t rank! it’s Holywood – land of artistic license- you can’t expect them to get EVERYTHING right…
by Jarrett
I don’t know about any of the econ jazz, but if S. Bell is up on it, it must be that fiya, son.
by Tim
I smell a job opportunity for season 5. Think big, Bo. Get HBO on line 1…
by Tiffany
Damn…but did the professor at least use the arc elasticity formula?
by Stephanie
Cut ’em some slack smarty pants. They get sooo much right, that I think even someone as socially maladjusted as you should be able to forgive one small sin. But I say that with my tongue planted firmly in my cheek. I’m a total freak when it comes to noticing mistakes in films and on tv shows.
by Kirk
Now hold on. Depends on how/why they were talking about it.
Elasticity can also be used to predict or explain the behavior of firms, not just individuals. For example, perhaps the firm needs to make decisions on how to use (or not use) capital. Granted, that’s somewhat micro- itself, but it’s not non-macro, if that makes any sense.
But yeah, they still screwed up.
by Rex
Not as big as the screwup in the Mummy 2 where they outrun the sunrise into the temple. (haha!)
The sun only travels across the Earth at approximately 1200 miles per hour. Yeah, they can outrun it… Suuuuuuure!
by Nick
Ha! I thought I was the only one who caught that! I am an Economics grad from The University of Iowa and I just started catching up on “The Wire”. I said the same thing to my buddy who was watching it with me. All I got was, “Man, you’re a nerd if you catch that stuff.” Shoot, to me that’s on par with watching someone play a baseball player in a movie and seeing him throw like Johnny Damon!! Some things just ain’t right…
by Rex
It seems like every profession goes through that when they are watching characters portray a member of their profession in TV or movies. I know that every storyline of architects in TV and movies are pretty far off base.
by Nikki
C’mon Bo, something so minute as that can get a pass. The series as a whole is so on point, give ’em a break.
by Matt Jones
As SNL once said, there are geeks, dweebs and spazzs….and then there are guys who critique the microeconomic principles cited on “The Wire”.