enginomics
Explanation
This comic satirizes the tech-industry-driven approach to municipal economics. A mayor announces plans to rename the town "Blockchain City" as part of a strategy to attract engineers and improve the local economy. A critic questions this, and the mayor lays out an elaborate plan that parodies real-world tech grift:
Engineers generate value by making small improvements to things like car parts, search engines, and banking software. However, the mayor only wants to attract them using trendy tech buzzwords (blockchain, decentralized, etc.) -- not the actual useful work they do. The plan involves setting up a cafe that accepts Bitcoin but immediately converts it to real money, and luring engineers with "3D printers that are only good for impressing children and a station for personal transport quadcopters that will never be built."
The final twist reveals the entire scheme costs almost nothing because confused engineers will come willingly, attracted by buzzwords like "lemonading with Golang and Python." The comic lampoons how municipalities and companies use tech hype as a cargo-cult economic strategy, exploiting engineers' enthusiasm for trendy technologies while the actual economic value comes from mundane, unglamorous work. The last panel adds that they're also luring "confused finance people" -- broadening the satire to include the crypto/fintech crowd.