Recently I was watching a show called “Monk.”\u00a0 It’s one of those 2000’s USA detective shows.\u00a0 The rough premise of the show is about an amazing detective (Monk) with obsessive compulsive disorder and a number of phobias.\u00a0 Most of the show is him coping with his crippling disorders and the world not accommodating him.\u00a0 Of course, each episode is capped off with him solving some absurd\/extreme murder mystery.\u00a0 The way he solves mysteries is also congruent with his disorders.\u00a0 This one episode where his therapist offers him amazing medication.\u00a0 This was music to Monk’s ears, because he hates his OCD and phobias.\u00a0 He wants to be like everyone else in his immediate vicinity, not afraid of the world.<\/p>\n
He ends up taking the medication in this episode.\u00a0 Since this is fiction, the medication tackles all of his disorders and he immediately stops being afraid of the world, his OCD is no more, and his unspoken depression also dissipates.\u00a0 The one problem is that he looses his detective skillz.\u00a0 This is no surprise, even though it is never explicitly said, it is clear that his OCD and phobias are complementary with his observations at the scene of the crime.\u00a0 Monk begins to hate the man he’s become, he feels like he’s lost something and he ends up throwing the meds in the trash and solving the case.\u00a0 Shocking that all this happened in 40 minutes.<\/p>\n
This one episode was able to exemplify many economic models.\u00a0 The first two are loss aversion and inequality aversion.\u00a0 In this example it is difficult to differentiate which is happening.\u00a0 When Monk is first discontent with his current ability\/disability he focuses on his disabilities.\u00a0 He weighs what he has lost (or doesn’t have) more heavily than what he has.\u00a0 With this mental approach he quickly hates his quirks and differences.\u00a0 Once he takes the medication and what is “lost” becomes his crime fighting skillz he wants to revert to his old self.\u00a0 This is an interesting paradox of loss aversion.\u00a0 Even when you are able to retrieve what you have lost, the cost of retrieval becomes what is lost and you are again faced with loss aversion.<\/p>\n
Another economic property shown is a diversity of bundles.\u00a0 This might be shown throughout the whole show.\u00a0 Since Monk deviates from the common person his value increases.\u00a0 An abundance of Monk is not preferred, but him being common is also not preferred because the police force prefers a diversity in bundles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Recently I was watching a show called “Monk.”\u00a0 It’s one of those 2000’s USA detective shows.\u00a0 The rough premise of the show is about an amazing detective (Monk) with obsessive compulsive disorder and a number of phobias.\u00a0 Most of the show is him coping with his crippling disorders and the world not accommodating him.\u00a0 Of course, each episode is capped off with him solving some absurd\/extreme murder mystery.\u00a0 The way he solves mysteries is also congruent with his disorders.\u00a0 This one episode where his therapist offers him amazing medication.\u00a0 This was music to Monk’s ears, because he hates his OCD Continue reading Monk’s Loss<\/span>