2014-06-07
Explanation
The Joke
A man cheerfully asks his kids, "Hey kids! You wanna play monopsony?" The kids respond, "You mean Monopoly?" He corrects them: "Nope! Monopoly is when one firm is the only seller of something. Monopsony is when only one firm is the buyer of something." He then declares, "I am the only buyer of labor in the house, so I've decided that I will only buy your chore-doing at 50% of the former rate." The kids stare at him, and one asks, "Wait... is monopsony a board game or a power you just realized you have?"
The Humor
The comic plays on the similarity between the words "Monopoly" (the famous board game) and "monopsony" (an economic term most people are unfamiliar with). The father uses the economics lesson as a Trojan horse to announce that he is cutting his children's allowance for chores, since as the sole employer in the household he has monopsony power over their labor. The children's final question perfectly captures the moment of realization that their dad is not proposing a fun game but rather exploiting market power. It satirizes both how obscure economic terminology can sound harmless and how monopsony power is actually wielded in real labor markets -- employers who are the only buyer of labor can suppress wages, which is exactly what the father is doing.
References
Monopsony is a real concept in economics, the mirror image of monopoly. Where a monopoly means a single seller dominates a market, a monopsony means a single buyer does. The classic example is a company town where one employer is the only option for workers, allowing it to pay below-market wages.