2012-04-16
Explanation
This comic tackles a well-known frustration among students and educators: the bizarrely persistent high price of graphing calculators. In the first panel, a bespectacled man rants that computers have become millions of times faster and far cheaper, yet graphing calculator prices remain completely stable. He declares he is going to the economics department to get an explanation for this nonsense.
In the second panel, he confronts an economist, presenting the evidence: the calculator was expensive 20 years ago, expensive 10 years ago, and is expensive now, despite massive advances in technology. The economist finds this genuinely interesting and says he needs to consult with other economists. The final panel, captioned "Soon...," shows the economist presenting an academic paper that proposes graphing calculators as the world'''s reserve currency. The joke is that the calculator'''s price is so stubbornly, inexplicably stable over time that economists cannot explain it through normal market forces -- instead, they conclude that graphing calculators are actually the most stable store of value in existence, making them ideal as a currency standard.
This comic is a commentary on the real-world phenomenon where Texas Instruments TI-83 and TI-84 calculators have maintained roughly the same price (around 00) for decades despite the plummeting cost of equivalent computing power. The likely real explanation involves TI'''s near-monopoly, institutional inertia in school curricula, and standardized testing requirements, but the comic'''s absurd economic conclusion is far funnier. The votey panel has a woman telling the author "Graphing calculator humor? You'''ve reached nerd level 42," to which he reverently responds "Peace be upon you," treating nerd level 42 as a sacred achievement.