Let’s face it: explaining economics to kids can feel about as easy as herding cats. But fear not! With Jonathan Gullible as your trusty sidekick, it’s easier to make economic principles fun and engaging.
Here are some tips to help you get started with fun and meaningful conversations with the young people in your life.
Step one, of course, is to watch the new animated series The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible! After a storm, Jonathan finds himself shipwrecked on the strange island of Corrumpo. There, he discovers a mixed-up world filled with funny examples of government meddling in people’s lives and business.
Even though these governmental intrusions are taken to the extreme on Corrumpo, it’s still easy to relate what Jonathan encounters to the real world. For example, in the very first episode, Jonathan sees a young woman, Alisa, being arrested for the heinous crime of using an axe to cut down a tree instead of the blunt sticks required by law. After all, if anyone at all can use an axe to cut down a tree in a fraction of the time it takes specialized tree workers using the blunt sticks, that’s threatening the jobs of tree workers!
To anyone who watches the show, this is obviously a silly thing to prevent. Everyone’s life would be better when lumber is more plentiful and less expensive, including the tree workers who now have the chance to do something more productive (or even just more fun) with their time! But is this fear of tree-felling progress really all that different from today’s resistance to certain technological advances?
Then there’s the fourth episode, “A Bridge Too Tall,” where Jonathan has to navigate a dangerous bridge filled with obstacles and traps just to get into another city. After managing to get across the bridge—barely—he discovers it’s there to protect local businesses from out-of-town competition. As absurd as that seems, is the obstacle bridge really all that different from real-world trade barriers like high tariffs and import quotas?
Once you and your kids have identified the ridiculous interventions and their real-world counterparts, it’s easy to move into exploring how Corrumpo and the world around them might be better off if those interventions were reduced—or even removed altogether.
Encourage your kids to start a small business, like a lemonade stand, or create their own allowance budget to help them save up for that toy or game they really want. Even board games like Settlers of Catan can help them get their heads around trade, resource management, and planning for the future!
Economics is all around us, and learning the foundational principles can help kids understand the world around them and how they can actually make it better. The lessons learned with The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible will last a lifetime!
