Crash Course Economics

I love Crash Course series for getting a basic overview of broad topics. I've been watching Capitalism start to morph from a system where value is derived from the exploitation of physical and mental labor into one where value is derived from algorithmically-captured attention streams. Elon Musk is a terrible engineer, but he's got a brilliant unconscious grasp on how the attention economy can make you money - his stocks do well not because he makes quality products but because he captures so much attention.

Economics is not something I've really studied much. I'm anti-Capitalist in theory, stuck living in a consumer society where I have to hustle every month to pay the bills, and know enough basics to know that the economy is fragile in some ways and resilient in other ways and that it acts curiously like a cluster/pantheon of Gods as Algorithms. But before I can really form more coherent opinions on economics other than the obvious "Capitalism sucks everything dry because it doesn't know how to do anything but that", I need to dig in more deeply.

Crash Course is GREAT for that. 10 minute videos. Covering all the basics so you get a better grasp of how it all actually works. You get to learn the vocabulary and the core concepts - that's what these notes are here for. As I gradually make my way through the videos, I'll note things that catch my attention - like the fact the Muppets showed up in the first video, which is a weird little synchronicity considering one of my bigger independent research projects is called, "The Personhood of Kermit the Frog: Towards a Metaphysics of Hyperreality" as well as another one on using Fraggle Rock to introduce people to leftist values - the Doozers are Communists, the Fraggles are Anarchists, the Gorgs are Monarchists, and by the end of the series, they've all learned how to co-exist and the Gorg heir accepted the crown then abdicated the throne and banished the monarchy entirely. Then the CIA used it to push Western ideals into the U.S.S.R. and a couple years later, it collapsed and Putin's been pissy ever since.

So anyway... economics... going through Crash Course and building a very basic mental framework to build upon once I get into the more esoteric ideas like Meme Economics and the Attention Economy. The videos are short so there will only be one or two core ideas per video, but they're all nodes in a network that's useful for simulating new ideas.

Video 1 - Intro to Economics: https://youtu.be/3ez10ADR_gM?si=2gLd8R-_DLMUNvZn
Idea that sticks in my head: Opportunity Cost
I was tickled to see the Muppets, including Kermit the Frog, show up in the first episode of this series on economics. It's the delightful sort of coincidence that is worth noting not to become attached to the idea of serendipity, but to see if there's connections worth exploring there.
"Economics is the study of people and choices."

Video 2 - Specialization and Trade: https://youtu.be/NI9TLDIPVcs?si=D1SBIZSkB11aISvh
"Economics is the study of scarcity and choices."
Adam Smith - specialization/division of labor is what made countries more wealthy. Each worker can focus on what they do best, as can each company. Labor is divided among many people. Industrialization and technology have increased the amount of specialization possible. Specialization makes people more productive; trade makes them better off.
PPF - Production Possibilities Frontier