The Economics of the Lego Movie

If you like Legos and hate communism, you should watch me explain the economics of The Lego Movie. The film itself is fun and hilarious, but also allows us to explore the differences between a command economy (think the Soviet Union or Nazis) against a free market where everyone pursues their own agenda.

The Lego Movie is interesting in that most people I’ve spoken to had very different interpretations of it based on their political viewpoint. From my perspective as a classical liberal, it struck me as poignantly decrying totalitarianism, and the unholy collusion of government and business–as opposed to the fun and prosperity creative destruction allows for in a free market. My liberal friends saw it as righteous blow against capitalism, presumably on account of the Lego villain having Mitt Romney’s haircut.

That’s just an aside. In the above clip I don’t try to interpret the goals of the political goals of the director or writer, although if they intend a screed against capitalism, they sure made a lot of filthy capitalist money in the process. Primarily, though, I crack jokes and elucidate fun economic concepts, like creative destruction.