2010-12-16
Original: 2010-12-16 on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Title caption (top): "HOMO ECONOMICUS: THE COMPLETELY RATIONAL, COMPLETELY SELF-INTERESTED INDIVIDUAL USED IN ECONOMIC MODELS."
The comic is a series of paired panels, each labeled with a banner reading either "HOMO SAPIENS" or "HOMO ECONOMICUS," contrasting how an ordinary human and a hyper-rational economic agent respond to the same situation.
Panel 1 (banner: HOMO SAPIENS) — A scene in a kitchen/coffee area. A man holding a coffee cup speaks to a woman.
Man: "Yeah, there's free electricity. Just find an outlet."
Woman: "Oh, cool, thanks!"
Panel 2 (banner: HOMO ECONOMICUS) — The same scene.
Woman: "What're you doing?"
Other person: "Running an extension cord to my house."
Panel 3 (banner: HOMO SAPIENS) — A blonde woman (mother) smiles at a red-haired person (her child).
Mother: "I love you, son."
Panel 4 (banner: HOMO ECONOMICUS) — The same mother and red-haired child.
Mother: "I love fifty percent of you, genetic payload."
Panel 5 (final, larger panel) — Three men stand together. The leftmost man is labeled "SAPIENS," a middle man is labeled "ECONOMICUS." A figure on the left is presenting/explaining.
Presenter: "So, if we just cut jobs 60%, you can still have a house made entirely of priceless religious artifacts."
Sapiens (labeled man, confused): "What? Why would I want—"
Economicus (labeled man, delighted): "This is the best Christmas ever!"
Votey:
A blonde woman, smiling, quotes the earlier line: "'Genetic payload' is a cute name!"
A man (turned away, looking unimpressed): "Biologists are weird."
The comic is a series of paired panels, each labeled with a banner reading either "HOMO SAPIENS" or "HOMO ECONOMICUS," contrasting how an ordinary human and a hyper-rational economic agent respond to the same situation.
Panel 1 (banner: HOMO SAPIENS) — A scene in a kitchen/coffee area. A man holding a coffee cup speaks to a woman.
Man: "Yeah, there's free electricity. Just find an outlet."
Woman: "Oh, cool, thanks!"
Panel 2 (banner: HOMO ECONOMICUS) — The same scene.
Woman: "What're you doing?"
Other person: "Running an extension cord to my house."
Panel 3 (banner: HOMO SAPIENS) — A blonde woman (mother) smiles at a red-haired person (her child).
Mother: "I love you, son."
Panel 4 (banner: HOMO ECONOMICUS) — The same mother and red-haired child.
Mother: "I love fifty percent of you, genetic payload."
Panel 5 (final, larger panel) — Three men stand together. The leftmost man is labeled "SAPIENS," a middle man is labeled "ECONOMICUS." A figure on the left is presenting/explaining.
Presenter: "So, if we just cut jobs 60%, you can still have a house made entirely of priceless religious artifacts."
Sapiens (labeled man, confused): "What? Why would I want—"
Economicus (labeled man, delighted): "This is the best Christmas ever!"
Votey:
A blonde woman, smiling, quotes the earlier line: "'Genetic payload' is a cute name!"
A man (turned away, looking unimpressed): "Biologists are weird."
Alt text
A multi-panel SMBC comic titled "HOMO ECONOMICUS: the completely rational, completely self-interested individual used in economic models." The comic pairs panels labeled "HOMO SAPIENS" versus "HOMO ECONOMICUS" to contrast normal human behavior with cold economic logic. In the first pair, a man offering "free electricity, just find an outlet" gets a polite "oh cool, thanks" from a Homo Sapiens, but the Homo Economicus is caught "running an extension cord to my house." In the second pair, a mother tells her red-haired child "I love you, son" as Homo Sapiens, but as Homo Economicus says "I love fifty percent of you, genetic payload." In the final large panel, a presenter pitches "if we just cut jobs 60%, you can still have a house made entirely of priceless religious artifacts"; the man labeled SAPIENS reacts in confusion ("What? Why would I want—"), while the man labeled ECONOMICUS beams and declares "This is the best Christmas ever!" In the black-and-white votey aftercomic, a smiling woman says "'Genetic payload' is a cute name!" and a skeptical man replies, "Biologists are weird."
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.