Economics of Avengers Infinity War
Spoiler for Avenger's Infinity War ahead! Be warned! And if any of you spoil endgame for me in the comments then so help me I will make sure you never blog again.
At the end of Infinity War, my man Thanos snaps and eliminates half of the population. Now, economically speaking, what would happen if Thanos did this in the real world rather than in the MCU?
You might immediately think of the children! The families! The poor dying animals... but no, all of those concerns are actually invalid. As economists we must immediately think of the effect on the housing market!
We would have so many houses on the market, yet demand would at least half for all houses causing an immediate economic relapse. Shrinking populations will cause thousands of towns to no longer be large enough to justify a school or church. Massive companies will no longer function because they will have lost a massive amount of their assets and workforce.
So, the ultimate question, what should Thanos have done?
Well, in order to avoid an economic crash, Thanos should have created unlimited resources because then economics would serve no purpose whatsoever. Known as the study of what to do with unlimited desire and scarce resources... there would no longer be scarce resources. As a result economics would be abolished and everyone would live happy with unlimited resources. While this would cost Mr. Stewart his job, he would also have unlimited polos to satiate his needs.

https://www.marketplace.org/2019/04/25/economy/economics-avengers-universe
At the end of Infinity War, my man Thanos snaps and eliminates half of the population. Now, economically speaking, what would happen if Thanos did this in the real world rather than in the MCU?
You might immediately think of the children! The families! The poor dying animals... but no, all of those concerns are actually invalid. As economists we must immediately think of the effect on the housing market!
We would have so many houses on the market, yet demand would at least half for all houses causing an immediate economic relapse. Shrinking populations will cause thousands of towns to no longer be large enough to justify a school or church. Massive companies will no longer function because they will have lost a massive amount of their assets and workforce.
So, the ultimate question, what should Thanos have done?
Well, in order to avoid an economic crash, Thanos should have created unlimited resources because then economics would serve no purpose whatsoever. Known as the study of what to do with unlimited desire and scarce resources... there would no longer be scarce resources. As a result economics would be abolished and everyone would live happy with unlimited resources. While this would cost Mr. Stewart his job, he would also have unlimited polos to satiate his needs.
https://www.marketplace.org/2019/04/25/economy/economics-avengers-universe
This was a great post and I'm glad in exists on the internet. It's very interesting that you came up with the idea that Thanos should have created unlimited resources. This would fix all economist problems, but I'm afraid also a lot of other problems. With unlimited resources everyone would be complacent and have no need to work. Society would not function because there would be no incentives too. Also humans technically count as a resource for brain power and manual labor, so would Thanos have also just created infinite humans?
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