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Meliax
#video #Episode 05: Playing with Price Controls #drama2026 #movie2026 #hotmovie
Transcript
00:16Today is so exciting!
00:18Oh, I know!
00:20Wednesday!
00:21Wait, Copernicus, do you remember where we're going?
00:23To Thursday!
00:25Wait, we're going to Wonky's toy shop to buy that game we've been saving up for.
00:30I love that Wonky sells so many cool games with a twist.
00:34Smack'em, Slap'em, Robots, AI Edition.
00:37We already calculated who will win.
00:39And we took your jobs.
00:41Holographic Mystery Hint.
00:43Captain Ketchup murdered Professor Prune in the book room using a rubber chicken.
00:49And mutually assured destruction ship battle.
00:52Um, B-6?
00:55Ah!
00:56Today, Emily and I are getting Funopoly, the new talking version.
01:00If you thought regular Funopoly was a blast and not actually just a very long game that
01:05parents hate, then check out the new talking Funopoly.
01:09Choo-choo!
01:10You just bought a railroad, the way that all rich people do.
01:13Uh-oh, somebody punched the mayor.
01:15But it's okay.
01:16You can get out of here for just $30.
01:18Just like real life.
01:20Buy this game now for just 50 smackarolli!
01:23And while you can, supplies are very limited.
01:24We've been putting aside money for a couple months now.
01:28And it'll be so much easier than playing that old Funopoly we found at a garage sale.
01:35Oh man, I landed on one of your properties again.
01:38How much do I owe you?
01:40Not as much this time.
01:42Derek keeps eating my houses.
01:44You've had enough real estate for today, buddy.
01:51I see Funopoly.
01:53I see hours of fun.
01:55I have bird poop on my eyes.
02:05Give me your money and I'll confine it with mine.
02:10That's 50.
02:14Ugh, inflation again?
02:16Will this ever stop happening?
02:18Grandma would say, no.
02:19But I don't think it's inflation because the other games are still the same price.
02:24Well, at least they'll see that no one is going to buy it for that much.
02:28I'll take it.
02:29What?
02:29You're lucky.
02:30You got one of the last ones.
02:34Now I see disappointment.
02:38I see.
02:39Bye.
02:39Bye.
02:40Bye.
02:44Bye.
02:46Bye.
03:47What's the price?
03:48I mean, how much money does that singing toy maker need?
03:51Even more money!
03:52He completely ruined our weekend plans.
03:55Just like my pet hamster.
03:59It should be illegal to raise prices so high.
04:02Let's slow down.
04:04We know what you're gonna say about capitalism, Grandma.
04:07But don't you think there should be a limit to jacking up prices?
04:10At least for children?
04:10First of all, I can't believe you said the words limit and capitalism in the same sentence.
04:16And second, there's more that goes into raising prices than just greed.
04:19Unless you're Big Pharma.
04:21Can you please answer our question without taking us on an educational trip?
04:24Nope.
04:25Not unless you can afford my $100 skip education fee.
04:29Used to be 75.
04:31I can't afford that!
04:33Guess I have to come too!
04:41Huh?
04:43Twins!
04:44Meet Ludwig von Mises.
04:46Economist and…
04:47Who?
04:47You've met him before!
04:49But no one is here, Grandma!
04:51Oh!
04:51My timing is off!
04:52This must not be a prescription monocle!
04:55Whoa!
04:56Free class!
04:59And…
05:00Twins!
05:01Meet Ludwig von Mises.
05:02Economist, historian, and pigeon enthusiast from Season 2, Episode 8.
05:07Fly home, my pretties.
05:09It isn't gonna work this time, Grandma.
05:11There's nothing anyone can say that will convince me that doubling the price of a board game is okay.
05:16I mean, a hundred dollars?
05:18That seems steep, even to me.
05:20Side with them and I will drop you inside a central bank!
05:23Yeah!
05:24Okay, let's not get crazy.
05:26But seriously, if they can hike up their price from fifty dollars to a hundred dollars in one week,
05:31what's to stop them from raising it to two hundred dollars next time?
05:35Nothing.
05:38Well, that was shorter than usual. Thanks again, Mr. Mises.
05:42Can we go home, Grandma? I'm late for crying in the back.
05:45Allow me, then! He's not done!
05:46We just want to know why it's so wrong to make sure businesses keep their prices reasonable.
05:52Then in Rome!
05:59What you're talking about are price controls, as they have been tried throughout history.
06:05Almost two thousand years ago, the Roman Emperor Diocletian...
06:09That's my hamster's name!
06:12Ahem.
06:13Diocletian tried to stop inflation by forcing these vendors to lower their prices.
06:18But because the sellers couldn't charge more, they couldn't pay their suppliers enough.
06:22So, the suppliers left that market.
06:25All aboard!
06:28This led to violence.
06:31It was much worse than this.
06:33Well, that's just all we can show here as an angel show.
06:36Just imagine he slapped his head off.
06:38But, as you can see, controlling prices actually ends up hurting the people they were meant to help.
06:44By getting slapped in the face.
06:47Oh, he's just here because the twins aren't as funny.
06:50Well, it was a lot worse than a slap. Shortages in goods caused all kinds of chaos.
06:55Also, side note, Diocletian tried to stamp out many religions.
07:00Just like my hamster!
07:03The thing is, governments don't need to try and control the market.
07:06Because prices have a way of sorting themselves out through supply and demand.
07:11I demand that you supply us with less words!
07:15Wait, does this kid only pipe up when things get boring?
07:18I mean, you were the one talking, so...
07:20Great. Now I'm self-conscious.
07:23What's supply and demand?
07:24I'm so excited you asked.
07:26So, as an example, let's say everyone suddenly loves a new game.
07:30Uh...
07:31A game that is so entertaining and made up just to be funny.
07:36Like...
07:37Sponge tag.
07:38No?
07:40Uh...
07:40Bacon toss?
07:42Uh-uh.
07:43Hmm.
07:44Or pickleball?
07:46Mmm.
07:47Yes.
07:48Pickleball!
07:48So everyone runs to the store to get themselves a pickleball.
07:52That's called high demand.
07:54But there aren't enough pickleballs for everyone.
07:56So that's called low supply.
07:58So prices go up.
08:00But here's the cool part.
08:02Debatable!
08:02That higher price is a signal to pickleball factories to make more pickleballs.
08:07So more pickleballs are made and pretty soon the stores are overflowing.
08:12And very often.
08:13This is when prices go down.
08:15The supply has caught up with the demand.
08:18So if the government forced the store to keep their prices low, it would mess all of this up.
08:23Exactly.
08:24When a government controls the price, they cut the signals of supply and demand that allow prices to change naturally.
08:33This is true for pickleballs or appliances or even homes.
08:36If they set the price too low, no one wants to make them.
08:40Set it too high, no one wants to buy them.
08:42Either way, there are fewer pickleballs for everyone.
08:45But in an ideal free market, supply and demand are allowed to naturally balance each other out to the benefit
08:52of the consumer.
08:54My grandma plays pickleball.
08:56You look like her.
08:57Does this feel mean to anyone else?
09:00Check it up, missus. Economics isn't going to make itself more interesting.
09:04Fine. Set course for the USSR.
09:07That's your idea for something more interesting?
09:10Back when Mother Russia was the Soviet Union, they were really into things like cold and war.
09:16And they thought they could make a better society by controlling prices.
09:20Since the 1920s and for decades after, the Soviet Union took supply and demand and threw it out the window.
09:27In an attempt to create a fair society by controlling businesses and prices which broke the natural signals.
09:34They came up with complex formulas to figure out what those prices should be, but it never worked out.
09:40Is that the second law of thermodynamics?
09:42Businesses crumbled as the government's fair prices weren't high enough to keep those businesses afloat.
09:48And new businesses weren't created because there was no incentive.
09:53My hamster is in the business of being adorable.
09:58Also, he flips houses.
09:59I'm just going to ignore that boy.
10:01The way that Soviet Russia ignored the will of the people?
10:06See?
10:07I can be boring too!
10:09That's it!
10:09I'm done!
10:11Please, Ludwig, finish your thoughts.
10:14The Soviet government had broken the market's supply and demand signals so badly,
10:19that they actually started using a Sears department store catalog from America to decide what the prices should be.
10:25What?
10:26Now that's funny!
10:28Finally!
10:29The point of all of this is when a market loses the natural signals that come from supply and demand,
10:35the only thing that will remain is the demand.
10:40Price controls hurt those.
10:42They were meant to help.
10:45This is really sad, but it still just seems like our toy store in the United States wouldn't need to
10:51completely double the price of a game.
10:53But what you're complaining about is the signal, that high price that tells the manufacturers to make more games.
11:01It's not just about greed.
11:03But sometimes it is.
11:05Your toy store has a limited supply, and kids like you create a lot of demand.
11:09All right!
11:11Ethan didn't learn anything, and neither did me!
11:15Grandma!
11:19Copernicus is steering!
11:21Relax!
11:21I'm teaching him to drive!
11:23It's a free market!
11:24That's not what that means, and you know it!
11:26You've never let us drive!
11:28You've never asked!
11:29I've asked so many times!
11:31If everyone would just calm down, I would now like to talk about subjective value theory.
11:37Egypt!
11:40Look at me! I'm the rich peanut man!
11:43Whoa!
11:46Whoa!
11:47GPS!
11:50Where did you get that monocle, Grandma?
11:53From a Russian magician!
11:55You know a Russian magician?
11:56This isn't time for backstudy!
12:20Ethan!
12:21Ethan!
12:21This isn't so bad!
12:22Look at the ground!
12:23Oh, wow!
12:24This looks like a giant version of talking to an op-
12:27A Sovietopoly!
12:29Where we break supply and demand, and we also break you!
12:36What?
12:37So many cool spaces!
12:39All of your money goes into this convenient box!
12:43Uh-oh!
12:44Somebody tried to protest!
12:47Everything's fine!
12:48Nothing to see here!
12:52Now, choose your pieces!
12:56Woohoo!
12:57A one wheel tricycle!
12:59A denty hat!
13:01Ooh!
13:01I used to live in one of these!
13:03Oh, yeah!
13:13Wee!
13:15I'm just going to watch!
13:16I grew up playing games with communists, and you never win!
13:24This could still turn out to be fun!
13:27One person will win, everyone else dies!
13:30What?!
13:31I guess it's just gonna be one third fun!
13:35Grandma!
13:35Get us out of here!
13:37This game is going to kill us!
13:38Ah!
13:39Dying builds character!
13:40I wanna see where this goes!
13:42Okay!
13:43We can do this!
13:44Wait!
13:45These only go up to three!
13:47Please, for fairness, we don't want anyone getting too far ahead or too far behind!
13:52Okay!
14:03Huh?
14:07I've been the terrible place!
14:09Cost $100!
14:11Rent $50!
14:12Ooh!
14:12I'll buy it!
14:18Ha-ha!
14:20Woohoo!
14:24Cop up the rent money!
14:25Loser!
14:26Emily!
14:27Emily!
14:27You remember what happens to the losers?
14:30Oh!
14:30Yeah!
14:30Sorry!
14:31Just got caught up in the game!
14:32Me too!
14:33I just bought a Kremlin!
14:35It sounds cozy!
14:42Only two cookies!
14:43Oh, yeah!
14:45Oh, yeah!
14:48Yeah!
15:14$500 just for a house?
15:16I won't even last two more turns at this rate
15:18and I still need to buy more property.
15:21You are demanding property?
15:24Okay, yes, I know what you're getting at.
15:27Sure, properties are in demand from me,
15:29but I won't be able to buy them
15:31with this unfair rent price.
15:33Well, everything does need to be fair.
15:36There you go, lower rent.
15:38Hey, but now I don't make as much money.
15:41In Sovietopoly, you don't play game.
15:44Game plays you.
15:46Uh-oh.
15:47But this isn't play.
15:49This is just price controls.
15:51Don't think of it as control.
15:52Think of it as help.
15:54It's protection.
15:56Protection for who?
15:57For the renter.
15:59But what about me, the owner of the property?
16:02Um, sorry.
16:03Can't hear you.
16:04Bad reception.
16:09Sorry, Emily.
16:11But I really needed that.
16:18Yes!
16:19I'm going to be rich.
16:27Join the kajib.
16:30Do anything you want!
16:33Woo-hoo!
16:35Woo-hoo-hoo!
16:43Not today!
16:45Get up for today!
16:49Pay a thousand dollars on repairs for every hotel?
16:54What?
16:55How?
16:55Wow!
16:56Okay.
16:57At least I can make most of that money back if someone lands on my hotel.
17:04My money is smiling!
17:07Comrade Ethan!
17:08Not really my name.
17:10Now we are lowering your hotel rents.
17:13Huh?
17:14I can only charge fifty dollars now?
17:17KGB Operative Copernicus needs to sleep in your hotel.
17:21But Jess lost most of his money.
17:24But you're the one who took from him!
17:26Ha-ha!
17:27Perfect society!
17:29There you go, comrade!
17:32This stinks!
17:33I was really counting on that increased rent price so I could buy more properties.
17:38Is fair, remember?
17:41But I put so much money into this place!
17:43Plus, I just had to pay a random maintenance fee!
17:46Maintenance not random!
17:47Maintenance important!
17:49Maintenance is a life lesson!
17:51Ugh...
17:52What?
17:57When totally not rigged elections, you now control prices.
18:02Wait, I'm in control now?
18:03How am I supposed to know how much things should cost?
18:06I don't know anything about this place!
18:08Use government-approved math.
18:10Ugh!
18:11But none of this math makes sense!
18:13In earlier versions of game, we tried normal math, but couldn't come up with answers we liked.
18:18Math isn't about liking the result.
18:20It's about hard numbers.
18:22Soviet Union not like hard numbers.
18:25It's more fun to make them up.
18:26Or get them from a catalog.
18:29Hold on!
18:29Are you American spies?
18:31No!
18:32We're just educated!
18:33Even worse!
18:35Never mind!
18:35Now all your properties belong to the state!
18:38Little girl wins!
18:39The rest of you die!
18:42I'm just silly to avoid my family!
18:45I'm not ready to go!
18:47Sorry!
18:48Rules are rules!
18:49Even if we change them randomly all the time.
18:51Girl is winner!
18:52But it's not really winning if I lose my brother and my friend!
18:57She's right!
18:58Nobody really wins!
19:00Nobody wins with this system!
19:02These rental properties are what's in demand.
19:04And when someone pays me rent, I'm the one supplying them.
19:08And I need it to increase rent!
19:11Not just to make money!
19:12I actually really needed it to afford the costs that come with owning property!
19:16So if I'm not allowed to make the money I need, then I can't supply anyone with the products they
19:21need!
19:22Congratulations!
19:23You learned another life lesson!
19:25Now prepare to learn death lesson!
19:28Ah!
19:29Ah!
19:31Ah!
19:37Finally!
19:38Something's happening!
19:44Stop!
19:45I'm former KGB!
19:46Pretty sure those are common last words, buddy!
19:51Ah!
19:54Ah!
19:56Ah!
19:56Ah!
19:57Ah!
19:57Ah!
20:01Wait!
20:02No!
20:03You, you can do that!
20:05Why not!
20:06Isn't that what you believe in?
20:08Absolute fairness?
20:13Ok, fine, yes, you may divide prize and live.
20:17But you're still not allowed to be happy!
20:19Welcome to the Soviet Union!
20:22Emily, you saved our lives!
20:25Man, Russians are crazy.
20:26Actually, most Russians are great.
20:29It's the Soviets you have to look out for.
20:33I guess we'll just keep saving up our money.
20:36It seems like Phonopoly really is in demand.
20:39Hey, Mom, can I pick up an extra shift?
20:41Sure, honey. What for?
20:43To save our economy from price controls and a faceless Soviet dictator.
20:47What?
20:48That game Emily and I wanted doubled in price.
20:51But I understand now that it was probably from lack of supply.
20:55Though at first I just wanted Wonky to be forced to keep it at $50.
20:59That's a good lesson to learn.
21:01Price controls don't help anyone.
21:03They're just a temporary illusion of fairness.
21:06Mom, how do you know how to set your prices here at the cafe?
21:09We watch the daily signals of supply and demand.
21:12We've increased the prices on donuts because they're so popular,
21:16but lowered the price on bran muffins because the ingredients got cheaper.
21:20I hate bran muffins!
21:22And because of that.
21:23Yeah, we know you guys aren't trying to be greedy with your customers,
21:27but you still need to make money.
21:29And it's always an ongoing experiment.
21:31If we raise prices too high, people would go to a different cafe.
21:35If we put them too low, we would lose money and eventually the business.
21:39We're just trying our best.
21:58Ladies and gentlemen, you're champions!
22:04Hey, congrats, Derek.
22:06Mr. Wonky!
22:08We'd like your last Phanopoly, please.
22:10And don't worry, now we know you're not just some greedy jerk who hates kids,
22:14but just a business owner listening to the supply and demand of your games.
22:20You're welcome.
22:21Well, actually, you're in luck.
22:23We were able to make more games thanks to our profits.
22:25So now the price of Phanopoly can be lowered a bit.
22:28Just $85, please.
22:29Sweet!
22:35$85 is less than $100.
22:37You say that's not much, but I'm telling you,
22:39it's something worth $15.
22:41You could buy so much more!
22:43You could buy the accessories at the store!
22:46You can buy a wonky figurine, you buy a wonky hat!
22:55Can you get all the money?
23:01I'm so excited!
23:03I'll bet this is going to be more fun than when we played with that disembodied Russian voice!
23:09Wait, what?
23:12I don't care what you do with the dollars and cents,
23:15just spin it at the store, our shareholders cry!
23:17If you don't spend the money, I think I'm gonna die!
23:20A wonky story, a wonky please!
23:23I live alone in a condo!
23:25I am lonely, my work is my life!
23:28So buy a wonky story!
23:30All right!
23:59You're all right!
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