Would you live in El Carburetor, California?

"E. Julius" (soonerfrommi) 03/31/2015 at 07:15 • Filed to: None

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Cars cost nothing to run, but there's a limit or tax on driving and the only foods available are $1 Big Macs. Twist: the tax/limit actually makes you happier. From a set of exercises for one of my Econ classes.

thebigbossyboss > E. Julius 03/31/2015 at 07:23

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So fucking glad I dropped out of economics. Dear god.

E. Julius > thebigbossyboss 03/31/2015 at 07:26

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Haha it's not for everybody.

KnowsAboutCars > E. Julius 03/31/2015 at 07:33

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Big Macs as the only food available would kill it for me. I could deal with limited driving (if the limit isn't absurd that is).

thebigbossyboss > E. Julius 03/31/2015 at 07:34

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Differential equations are literally death.

FromCanadaWithLove > E. Julius 03/31/2015 at 07:37

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Shit. And that's why I'm in architecture. We just draw stuff all day.

thebigbossyboss > KnowsAboutCars 03/31/2015 at 07:38

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From the early days of the internet.

E. Julius > thebigbossyboss 03/31/2015 at 07:38

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To be fair, nothing beyond calc 1/high school calc is required to complete this exercise.

thebigbossyboss > E. Julius 03/31/2015 at 07:40

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Yeah this exercise. What year are you?

thebigbossyboss > FromCanadaWithLove 03/31/2015 at 07:41

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That's why I am drop out. I just work all day. :D

KnowsAboutCars > thebigbossyboss 03/31/2015 at 07:41

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lol

E. Julius > FromCanadaWithLove 03/31/2015 at 07:44

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That sounds way more difficult to me than a simple maximization problem! I do have a fascination with architecture though, very cool stuff.

I guess it's easy to lose sight of how much you've learned when you're immersed in it all the time. This problem shouldn't be very difficult for anybody who has done an intermediate microeconomics course, but I forget how hard that can be for people.

E. Julius > thebigbossyboss 03/31/2015 at 07:51

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Fourth year student, but only my third year of Econ. I've definitely had classes/exercises much more intense than this, although this counts as a Master's class in France. Diff eqs are certainly not something I would do for fun.

E. Julius > KnowsAboutCars 03/31/2015 at 07:56

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Assuming you're a typical El Carburetor resident, the driving limit would be 5 hours per day : P

KnowsAboutCars > E. Julius 03/31/2015 at 08:02

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That would be more than sufficient. Big Macs would still be bugging me though.

whatisthatsound > E. Julius 03/31/2015 at 08:10

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I was an econ major that chose the path because my lady friend was. She was a senior I a freshman and thought she could help me. She finished number nine in her class I finished 635/815. She like you understood econ and I got a 2.3.

E. Julius > whatisthatsound 03/31/2015 at 08:15

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Yeah it's definitely something that some people find pretty intuitive and others don't. Weird how people are different like that.

whatisthatsound > E. Julius 03/31/2015 at 08:18

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One day I was studying differences between gross and net GDP functions and I had the book in front of me. I asked her what the equations meant. From her memory while mindlessly watching TV across the room she said the equation and everything it meant. I felt like an idiot closed the book and vowed I'd do it on my own. Mistake 1 picking econ. Mistake 2 not asking for help. College didn't teach me econ but it taught me to know when I was in some deep stuff and needed help.

E. Julius > whatisthatsound 03/31/2015 at 08:21

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That's really the more important lesson. Since I have no desire to go into academic/research economics, or be an economist at all for that matter, I know I'm not going to actually be doing 95% of the stuff I'm learning in my classes. I do know that what I've learned about how to approach problems, when to ask for help, and skills like modeling and describing things analytically will be very useful for my career.

Round headlight enthusiast > E. Julius 03/31/2015 at 08:27

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I once took an economics course....this makes sense because all the taxes produce an incentive to not drive. So, that means the roads are open for those people who need to drive

IMO driving is only fun when you don't have to deal with traffic. This is why I don't live in a major city

E. Julius > Round headlight enthusiast 03/31/2015 at 08:29

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Yep, you hit the nail on the head. A limit on driving (or a limit on driving effectively imposed by taxes) reduces the total number of hours people are on the roads to the point where everyone can get the most utility from the road.

Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis > E. Julius 03/31/2015 at 08:47

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I dont think my body can handle that many Big Macs.

And everyone here is talking about how hard this looks. But for the most part its just variable substitution. Or maybe I'm just already in the thought process because I'm a Finance major. Was an econ major for a little while too, but I switched it to something more tech related.

E. Julius > Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis 03/31/2015 at 08:55

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Ha I'd definitely be pretty much dead after day three of the Big Mac diet. You're right though, it's really not that difficult. You can solve it with algebra, and it's even quicker if you use basic calculus techniques (solving for when the first derivative with respect to d is equal to zero). But for those who aren't used to solving word problems like these or for those who aren't familiar with the tools used to solve them, I can see how it would look insurmountable.

I'm definitely still on the fence about my econ major. It's interesting and all that, but I have no desire to use much besides basic modeling principles outside of school. If I weren't in my fourth year of school I might consider switching to something else, but at this point I'm mostly done with it. Fortunately I've already got a great job offer waiting for me after school, so I'm not too worried about being stuck trying to find something or being trapped in some shitty job.

Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis > E. Julius 03/31/2015 at 09:11

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Yeah, calc...

That's probably the second reason why I decided to put the focus on finance. I'm significantly better at Statistics than clac. So it wasn't a hard choice to go with a more Stats based option.

And my career options arent too bad. I could get Database management or something like that, which sounds awful. But other than that its all good.

E. Julius > Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis 03/31/2015 at 09:24

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Ha I got a C in my stats class because I had the wrong time for the final exam! I find the broad strokes of finance super interesting, like how the different kinds of financial instruments work and how things are organized, but all the nitty gritty calculations and things that actual go into modern finance are not my thing. I'm sure you'll find something cool though. As long as you're not an asshole it really doesn't seem that difficult to find a non–terrible job if you have any sort of technical/analytical skill.

GTI Sprinks > E. Julius 03/31/2015 at 09:50

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Enginerd chiming in. Resisting urge to do this problem just because.

E. Julius > GTI Sprinks 03/31/2015 at 09:54

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Ha it really shouldn't take you that long. I have the answers somewhere if you'd like me to check your work ; )

E. Julius > thebigbossyboss 03/31/2015 at 12:57

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Haha I completely forgot about this video! It wouldn't load on my phone and I'm finally home to watch it. Classic.

thebigbossyboss > E. Julius 03/31/2015 at 13:01

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Soooooooo long ago. No youtube then.

E. Julius > thebigbossyboss 03/31/2015 at 13:08

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Attempting to remember how I used the internet before youtube and Google: