Today (August 23, 2024), MMTed releases Episode 4 in the Second Season of our Manga series – The Smith Family and their Adventures with Money. Have a bit of fun with it while learning Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) and circulate it to those who you think will benefit …
The Smith Family are a middle-class family living in a city somewhere in the world. The second-generation parents are university educated and have professional occupations. Their two kids attend the local public school.
In Season 1, we focused on the dynamics of the immediate Smith Family – Elizabeth, Ryan, Kevin and Emma – with some interaction from their friends.
In Season 2, the focus is on the school kids and their interactions with their new economics teacher Ms Allday and the unfolding economic recession that has damaged the community.
In Episode 4, the scene begins at school where Ms Allday, the senior economics teacher is hosting Chris Edwards, a friend of the Smith Family (well Elizabeth to be precise).
Chris is a banker and worked after his graduation for some years at the central bank.
Ms Allday, has been worried that the class, particularly Kevin and Brian, have seemed rebellious and refusing to accept the material in the textbook.
They keep quoting blog posts in class challenging her attempts to pass on, what she sees as essential knowledge about government fiscal policy and finances.
So, she came up with the idea of bringing Chris in to address the class, given that he is known and respected by several of the kids in the class.
She made the assumption that Chris was a mainstream economist and would quickly get all ‘the nonsense’ out of the kids’ heads.
She was wrong.
Using some simple analogies – that anyone can understand – Chris demonstrates that the government does not spend ‘taxpayers money’ and is constrained in its spending only by what is available for sale in that currency, politics aside.
The kids soak it up but Ms Allday is left non-plussed.
If you think you resemble any of the characters then either continue spreading MMT knowledge or get our textbook and get up to speed, depending on which character you might identify with.
If you have any feedback we will appreciate it, other than ‘this sucks’.
The manga is available in both English and Japanese.
Next episode – Episode 5 – will be available on September 6, 2024.
That is enough for today!
(c) Copyright 2024 William Mitchell. All Rights Reserved.
