Oddbean

Anyway, the reason I bring up Downfall is that I was trying to think of simple but roughly accurate model of the way market economies work. One with a colourful, physical model, so that examples of economic activity could even be demonstrated on it for a web video. Downfall seems perfect. (2/?) #economics #EconomicModels

The "trickle-down" theory of economics imagines the wealthy at the top of a Downfall set, where the counters are at the start of the game. From there, the counters - representing money - tumble through the economy, supplying workers with wages, and goods and services to buy with them. So the more money who can move to the wealthy, the more there is to "trickle down". But after more than 4 decades of "trickle-down" policy, it's pretty clear that economies don't work that way. (3/?)

The "trickle-down" theory of economics imagines capitalists at the top of a Downfall set, with all the counters (capital, ie money). As capitalists invest, the counters tumble through the economy, supplying workers with wages, and goods and services to buy with them. So the more money gets converted to capital, the more there is to "trickle down". But after more than 4 decades of "trickle-down" policy, it's pretty clear that economies don't work like that. Exactly the opposite. (3/?)

@49b604ac That reminds me of a fairly in-your-face metaphor I used to use in the late 1990s an early 2000s, when I was hanging out with anarcho-punks a lot. Imagine a beehive-shaped building, where the urinals on one floor are connected to the showers on the floor below. The Yes Men took this metaphor to the next level in one of their famous WTO-impersonation pranks: https://theyesmen.org/project/hamburger/behindthecurtain

@58db300d Of course, the challenge of the game is about knowing how the system works. If you do, you can manipulate it so that money/counters flow for you while preventing the other participant from getting any benefit. Yep, a good model of capitalism.

In neo-Keynsian "Modern Monetary Theory", capitalists are at the bottom of the Downfall set. However the game is played, the counters all eventually end up there. Taxing capitalists takes the tokens out at the end of one round of the game, and public spending puts tokens in the top, so a new round can start. As in "trickle-down", the more tokens move through the economy to businesses and workers. So the more often counters get moved from the bottom to the top, the better off everyone is. (4/?)

These are the two economic models I'm most familiar with talking about, but I'm sure there are more that could be described using Downfall. Have a go! I'm thinking out loud here, and clearly I have a bias. So if you have a technical criticism of my modelling, or suggestions about a more accurate way to model "trickle-down" or "Modern Monetary Theory" on a Downfall set I'd love to hear it! (5/5)