Mises Wire

Lessons on Economics and Politics from South Park

South Park

LearnLiberty.org is offering a new course developed by George Crowley of Troy University titled “Subliminal Lessons from South Park: A Super Primer on Economics and Politics.” The course blurb:

Hooowdy Ho Everbody! We are excited to bring you our newest program on economic lessons from the greatest TV show in the world, South Park. In this program, you’ll learn about cool stuff like voting, business, immigration, and the secret to killing manbearpig. So respect mah authoritah and learn about the intersection of economics and politics from your good friends Kenny, Kyle, Cartman, and Stan. You’ll have the best time you’ve had all year learning about economics through the lens of this hiiiiiiilarious cartoon… mmmkay?

Matt Stone, one of the creators of South Park, was the son of my late colleague, mentor, and dear friend Gerald Stone. Stone was one of my undergrad profs and hired me at Metro State. Stone, after he retired at Metro in 1996, authored CoreEconomics. Earlier he co-authored with Ralph Byrns a very successful principles book (6 editions). Byrns and Stone highlighted the work of Mises and Hayek (first edition 1981). It was one of the first principles books to effectively deal with NUR and later was one of the few books give supply side economics a fair presentation.

Watching many an episode, I can imagine a young Matt being influenced as Jerry ranted at some economic illiteracy being presented on the news. More on Jerry here: http://www.macmillanhighered.com/Catalog/Author/geraldstone.

HT to Art Carden.

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