Skip to content

The Cost of Fun

2014-02-28 · explainer · Hank · 3:14 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Economics (also: Books & writing) · mode: Explainer · tags: self promotion

Hank compares the cost per hour of entertainments (Super Bowl, VidCon, movies, video games, comics, board games, books, TV) and concludes that the dollars paid hardly correlate with the value delivered.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Greeting; books saw last week's rant and left a nasty comment, so an apology

  • ★ Hank jokes that books saw last week's (week of 17 February 2014) video, in which he said mean things about them, and left a nasty comment; as an apology he will discuss the best entertainment investments. (joke) — 00:00:01

00:00:06 — Cost per hour of entertainment: Super Bowl, VidCon, movies, video games, comics, board and card games

  • ★★ Hank says live events are usually the worst entertainment investments, though hopefully their quality is higher. — 00:00:17
  • ★ Hank calls this year's (2014) Super Bowl a very bad, uninteresting game. — 00:00:22
  • ★★ Hank says people pay upwards of $2,000 for a Super Bowl ticket for under four hours of entertainment, more than $500 per hour: about as bad as it gets. — 00:00:27
  • ★★ Hank says VidCon runs two days from about 10 a.m. to 2 a.m.; at the current $150 ticket price that is $5 per hour of entertainment, which is pretty good. — 00:00:38 · VidCon
  • ★★ Hank says a $10 two-hour movie is the same $5 per hour, as long as you skip the overpriced snacks, 3D, special theaters or pricier places. — 00:00:54
  • ★★ Hank says video games, among the most popular entertainments, usually debut at about $60 and take about 40 hours to beat: not bad at all. — 00:01:07
  • ★★ Hank, who loves comics as beautiful little pieces of art, calls them a bad investment: about 20 minutes to read for 3 dollars. — 00:01:15
  • ★★ Hank says board and card games are generally a fantastic investment if you play them: once the cost is paid, each play improves the value. — 00:01:24

00:01:31 — Books: The Fault in Our Stars on Amazon at 46 cents per hour; paying full price is the cost of a local bookstore

  • ★★ Hank says The Fault in Our Stars is currently on sale at Amazon for $7. — 00:01:33 · The Fault in Our Stars, Amazon
  • ★★ Hank says the book took him about 20 hours to finish; as an admittedly slow reader he shaves some time off, getting 46 cents per hour. — 00:01:36 · The Fault in Our Stars
  • ★★★ Since other entertainments cost much more, Hank thinks it's probably OK to pay full price for the book, only about 67 cents more per hour. (hedged) — 00:01:45 · The Fault in Our Stars
  • ★★★ Hank sees those extra 67 cents an hour as what he pays the local bookstore instead of Amazon, for a place to look at books, nice people who help him, shelves of opportunity. — 00:01:56 · Amazon

00:02:13 — Television's cost per hour; time is not comparable across media; dollars don't correlate with value

  • ★★ Hank says the average cable TV package costs $128 a month, but since the average American watches 34 hours of TV a week (which he can't believe), it is a really good deal. — 00:02:20
  • ★★ Hank says no one pretends time watching TV compares to time enjoying VidCon: hopefully 20 hours of VidCon is more than ten times as entertaining as 20 hours of TV. (playful, hedged) — 00:02:33 · VidCon
  • ★★ Hank thinks 20 hours of reading a book is probably more enriching than 20 hours of playing Grand Theft Auto. (hedged) — 00:02:44
  • ★★★ Hank concludes there doesn't seem to be much correlation between the dollars paid and the value delivered, which is why a lot of the best things in life are free. (hedged) — 00:02:49

00:02:57 — Song snippet 'Money (That's What I Want)' and sign-off

In the description and comments

  • ★★ In the description Hank adds that whatever you enjoy, don't let anyone belittle it: he was disparaging about TV but loves TV, just maybe not 34 hours a week. — video description

Threads in this video

Mentioned

Central: The Fault in Our Stars

Also: Projects: VidCon

Works: Grand Theft Auto · Money (That's What I Want)

Organizations: Amazon

Concepts: board game · card game · comics · film · independent bookstore · television · video game

Events: Super Bowl

Replies to

  • continues · Ranting about Books — “Last week I said some really mean things about books”

← Previous: John and Chris Meet in the Middle · Next → Understanding Ukraine: The Problems Today and Some Historical Context