HUMOR

Capitalism, My Brother, and ‘Super Mario’

Guess which one I don’t fully understand

Illustration by the author

In The Shawshank Redemption, there’s a character named Red. He’s a prisoner who smuggles in special items for other prisoners for a price. He’s the Amazon of Shawshank. Red can get you anything you want, within reason, everything but outer space. That’s reserved for the warden.

Here’s Red’s rule: “Risk goes up, price goes up.”

In other words, if the item you want is something that could get him in trouble, like a pickax, he charges more money.

This makes sense to me, and I agree. If the risk is high, the price should be high.

Something else that makes sense but something I disagree with is the Red rule of our world: “Desire goes up, price goes up.”

Let’s say I want a thing like an original Star Wars Cloud City playset. I’m at a yard sale, and you’re an American citizen whose children have long ago moved away, leaving behind their Star Wars stuff. You don’t know how much this stuff is worth because the Lord has blessed me with your ignorance.

I see the playset. And the price: $20.

When I see this, certain voids in my heart fill in. I am more complete, so complete my knees can hardly take the…