Elon Musk’s favorite economist joke
Two economists go hiking through the woods.
They find a bunch of shit
One economist tells the other:
“i’ll pay you 100 dollars if you eat it”
The economist eats the shit and gets 100 dollars
They keep going
Then they find another pile of shit
The other economist says:
“Now I’ll pay you 100 dollars if you eat this pile of shit”
He pays the other economist, and the other eats it
Then they say:
“Wait. We both just ate a pile of shit, and we don’t have any more money. We just gave each other 100 dollars, and we both ate a pile of shit. There’s no point to this.”
And the second one replies:
“No, no. Look at it from an economics perspective. We’ve just added 200 dollars to the economy”
Two economists go hiking through the woods.
They find a bunch of shit
One economist tells the other:
“i’ll pay you 100 dollars if you eat it”
The economist eats the shit and gets 100 dollars
They keep going
Then they find another pile of shit
The other economist says:
“Now I’ll pay you 100 dollars if you eat this pile of shit”
He pays the other economist, and the other eats it
Then they say:
“Wait. We both just ate a pile of shit, and we don’t have any more money. We just gave each other 100 dollars, and we both ate a pile of shit. There’s no point to this.”
And the second one replies:
“No, no. Look at it from an economics perspective. We’ve just added 200 dollars to the economy”