Monster economics

[tmazanec1]

2003 Annual, pages 40-41
Judging from the notice board, monsters use mils as a unit of currency (Vacuum Cleaner $160.909, single lens glasses $59.999, multiple head special hats $42.999). This isn't like gasoline that is an "analog" product...you don't buy half a vacuum cleaner. We have had serious attempts to abolish the penny as we get negative seignorage on it...it costs more than one cent to make a penny. The only reason we still have them is merchants pushing to keep them so we can have prices one penny below an even number (a psychology the monsters seem to share judging from the prices). What does this say about monster economics? Are the prices reasonably like American prices for such articles?

[pitbulllady]

While no one knows the exchange rate of a "mil" to a dollar, the prices seem fairly consistent for 2001 inflation rates here in the US. A GOOD vacuum cleaner will indeed cost roughly $169.00, if not more, and they were actually more costly back in 2001 when those "designer" vacuums came out(which don't work any better than a cheapie from Wal-Mart). Everything pretty much parallels the 2001 economy in our world, especially that tendency of merchants to wring every last cent from a product sale, rather than sell it for an even number. We saw from Sulley's clipboard that the economy was stock-driven, too, so no doubt monsters keep a lot of eyes on their version of Wall Street. I guess that opens the question; are they now experiencing a similar economic crisis like we are? At the time of the movie, the US was having a sort of energy crisis, due to the antics of the Enron Corp., which had yet to break at that time, although in retrospect, those seemed like boom times compared to today!

pitbulllady

[tmazanec1]

A mil (or is it mill?) is 1/1000 of a dollar. I find it nice that all three forms of a dollar sign are represented (one bar, two bars, partial bar).