If It’s Abundant It’s Worthless
We were not expecting to find a lesson about money in 'Emily in Paris'
The wife and I were watching ‘Emily in Paris’ on Netflix the other night. In episode 3 they create a perfume advert where a naked model walks across a bridge, flanked by men who stare at her as she passes. In the episode the protagonist questions whether the ad is sexy or sexist. We discussed it afterwards:
The Husband: It was sexist
The Wife: It was sexy
The Husband: Oh, wow that was unexpected!
The Wife: You are forgetting about the target audience. That ad is for older women. Young beautiful women get so much male attention it is worthless to them, many even despise it. Old fat women get none and any they do get is way more valuable to them. That was an ad for older women.
When you have an abundance of something it is worthless. When something is scarce it is valuable. This is true for everything.
Water is more valuable in the desert where there is none
Oxygen is more valuable in space where there is none
Heat is more valuable in the Arctic where there is none
The male gaze is more valuable when you are no longer the subject of it…
It is the same for money. When there is lots of money swilling around everything requires more money to purchase (shock horror). Since the pandemic started, we have all noticed the cost of the weekly shop has increased massively. Inflation has soared as the world’s governments have printed money to spend on things like furlough. As a result of the money supply swelling, prices across the board have increased. 2022 has been coined the year of ‘the big squeeze’ by a few media publications as the public now has to start paying the financial cost of the covid pandemic.
We don’t notice the increasing abundance of money unless its spiralling out of control because it is simply too big to observe anywhere apart from on a chart. The increase in volume also takes time to work through the economy and we measure the increase annually via price inflation.
Which begs the question… why would you store your wealth in an asset that someone else can create an infinite supply of? We know why… It’s convenient and easy.
If It’s Abundant It’s Worthless.
Emily is an American in Paris with an American work attitude and unique knowledge about social media marketing. She is the only one in the show with these attributes making her a scarce and valuable asset to the Parisian marketing companies.
Scarcity matters
Until Next Time
The Wealth Gap