It dawned on me the other day that the Mad Max movies make no economic sense. Sure, there was plenty of scarcity, and scarcity is the thing that economics focuses on. However, in studying econ, you learn that people substitute more costly things for those that are less costly when things get the most scarce. The biggest, most illogical economic feature of the entire movie is the use of huge, gas-guzzling muscle cars. Fuel is the currency of their world, as it is the most precious thing available, yet the inhabitants of this post-appocolyptic universe give power to those individuals with the most wasteful equipment. In the real world, the muscle-bound head hauncho would be riding on a mo-ped. You know, the kind that gets 30 miles to the gallon. His people would marvel at his ability to travel 60 miles on a gallon of gas! Efficiency is his source of power. [Geez, this post makes me realize why I’ve always been considered a geek!]