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The walking econ
Learning economics from The Walking Dead
Tawni H. Ferrarini
We have all heard it said. “You don’t know how important something is until you lose it.” For economists, that “something” is secure rights to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness. Without these rights, our modern world turns upside down; the contemporary economy that connects millions of people, machines, and organizations is gone and a chaotic world with a lot of disturbing noise emerges. This is the dystopian world of The Walking Dead.
For seven seasons and counting, millions of diehard fans have watched AMC’s adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead comic series. This pop culture phenomenon provides a fascinating entry point for economists to analyze the survivors’ fight against zombies and the dynamics of their relationships in a post-apocalyptic world. It illustrates how sound economic reasoning can be applied to improve standards of living and how the science of strategic decision-making can be applied skillfully to help individuals, like the survivors, live together better.
In what follows, you’ll learn why property rights are foundational to economics, why missed opportunities are fundamental to understanding costs, and how cooperation and coordination can improve standards of living.
A post-apocalyptic scene
In the post-apocalyptic world of The Walking Dead, the stories of key individuals and groups struggling for survival unfold.
Everyone is infected with a dormant virus. The source is unknown. What is known is that, on death, the corpses of the dead reanimate. On reanimation, they begin a continuous walk in an aggressive search for a bite of the flesh of something living. Destroying the brain is the only way living humans can stop the zombies (also known as “walkers”).
As the epidemic spreads, a population of mindless zombies emerges. They need no food, water, clothing, or shelter. The only sustenance they require is the flesh of something living. Once a living human is bitten, only a short time passes before they join the mass of walkers. The progression continues.
Now members of a small minority, survivors navigate in a world in which there is no stable government or money, and all accompanying formal systems of organization and justice are gone. Even though the factors of production are readily available – fertile land is abundant, machines and buildings are ready for use, and people are, hypothetically, free to work – the survivors in The Walking Dead find themselves passing on opportunities to utilize these resources in productive ways. Instead, they focus on survival and fighting off the constant aggressions of walkers – reanimated human corpses that lumber around only seeking bites of flesh.
Wake up, Deputy Sheriff! Law and order are gone
In the pilot episode, Deputy Sheriff Rick Grimes wakes up in an abandoned hospital situated in a community resting somewhere outside of Atlanta, Georgia. He quickly notices that something is not right. Rick is hooked up to monitors, but they are not checking his heart rate or taking his pulse. He doesn’t know what time it is, and the wall clock has stopped. The bouquet of flowers next to his bed has shriveled and died. The emergency buzzer on his hospital bed does not work. A confused Rick gets up in a frantic search for explanations and understanding.
One of the last things Rick recalls is chatting with his patrol partner about home life just before jumping into fast gear and setting out on a high-speed chase. Rick was shot and wounded while on duty. He fell into a coma. He awakes in an abandoned hospital surrounded by flesh-eating zombies. These zombies care nothing for Rick’s (or others’) right to life, property, happiness, and so forth. No, these “Walking Dead” live only for their next bite of flesh. I know. Gruesome. Stay with me, and read on. Rick does not instantly locate another human in the hospital. He leaves the hospital in frantic search of someone, anyone, who can provide answers to the millions of questions running through his mind.
Where is his family? The hospital staff? Where are all the people? Where are the residents of and visitors to Rick’s bubbling bedroom community outside of Atlanta, Georgia? Where did his community go? As Deputy Sheriff, he was sworn to serve and protect it. Everywhere Rick looks, he feels as if he is in a defeated war zone with evidence of pillage and plunder. What happened? Who let this happen? Where is the system of law-enforcement? It had once provided protection to his family, his community, and the world with which he was so familiar. Where are the other law enforcers? The military police? The other first responders to help clean up the ubiquitous mess of debris and walking zombies? How could all of this happen? Rick’s quest for answers unmasks the importance of what economists call “rule of law” and secure property in our modern lives.
In the modern United States and many countries around the globe characterized by economic growth and prosperity for more than 250 years there is a relatively stable system of law based on private rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness regardless of race, gender, income, status, religious creed, or background. Disputes or concerns associated with harm, hurt, damage, or exploitation of these rights are settled in a judicial system. As long as the majority of people in local communities, other societies, or countries respect the law and turn to a judicial system to settle matters related to violations of rights, especially property rights, individuals can settle into their communities, move about freely, pursue their independent dreams, and/or achieve their personal goals with minimal concern about protecting life or property.
In the post-apocalyptic world depicted in the series The Walking Dead, there is no stable modern-day government. There is no independent third party to provide law and order. There is no court system to settle disputes. What was yours in the pre-apocalyptic world is up for grabs in the post-apocalyptical world. It is up to you to protect what is yours, including your life.
In the post-apocalyptical era, individuals direct energies and available resources toward protecting lives, keeping others from taking their valuables, pushing back the threats of thugs, and stopping the deadly aggressions of zombies. Since energy and other valuable resources are directed to protection, little if any remain for production, investment, education, and third-party transactions. Gone are the days of going about your daily business without concern for personal safety and protection of life and property.
Now, thoughts about protection and survival penetrate the waking moments of many survivors. Finding ways to meet basic needs while living in a natural state absent of the conveniences made available by today’s commercial markets, technologies, medicines, investments, and trade across countries become a daily challenge. Survivors are now left to their own devices and moral codes to advance in a post-apocalyptic world like the one depicted in The Walking Dead.
Should I stay or should I go? Opportunity costs considered
Violence and suspicion have replaced peace and trust. All formal networks facilitating communication and transmitting information have failed. Rick and the other survivors have been launched into a world void of reliable information, protection, and stable government. The market society of modern times has crumbled. The streets are littered with corpses, abandoned cars, heaps of clothes, spoiled food, broken furniture, and lots of trash. Most houses are vacant except those used as places of refuge.
Surviving in The Walking Dead world is a constant struggle. It is largely unfamiliar and unpredictable, but the survivors still have their reasoning capacities. Economists point out that economic reasoning is a powerful tool. It can be used by individuals to make their personal lives better and help others along the way. As it turns out, this is especially true in a dystopian society.
The survivors in the post-apocalyptic world are the same spirited individuals that lived in the pre-apocalyptic world. They still possess the same prevailing desires to live, and to varying degrees, they hold tightly to their personal commitments to make life better while helping others.
People pursue a multitude of goals everyday – eat food, go to work, walk regularly, watch nature, get a solid night of sleep, etc. They constantly consider and make choices in pursuit of these goals. This is where economics comes in. Economists will tell you that there is a cost to every choice, but their definition of cost has a twist to it. They look at costs as opportunities lost, or, more technically, opportunity costs. Opportunity costs may be monetary, but in most instances, they are not. Often, the opportunities lost are nonpecuniary. Opportunity costs play a crucial role in making the best or most strategic decisions for The Walking Dead survivors.
The apocalypse did not change the fact that the survivors live in a world of scarcity. In fact, we all live in a world of scarcity. Everyone only has 24 hours in a day and limited access to a finite number of resources. Productive resources can be arranged and utilized in different ways to meet basic needs, satisfy an endless list of wants, and pursue a variety of goals. However, because resources are limited, choices must be made about how to use these resources. In most instances, individuals make the choices that promise to deliver the highest perceived benefits at the least perceived costs.
To illustrate, let’s consider Rick’s decision to search for his wife Lori and son Carl in the pilot episode. After rummaging through his abandoned house in his devastated community, Rick notices that family pictures have been taken from their home. This suggests to Rick that Lori and Carl are alive. He reasons that Lori grabbed the pictures and fled with Carl. He’s now faced with a choice – to search or not search for his family. If searching is his best option, what is his second-best option? Rick could stay home to become more familiar with the changes in his surroundings and gather more intelligence on the situation. Should he stay or should he go?
Sound economic reasoning requires that a person consider the opportunity costs. So, Rick considers his second-best choice – what he would miss out on if he chooses to search for his family. He weighs the benefits against the costs of that choice, compares the results to the other choice, and chooses the one with the highest net benefits. In light of his circumstances, Rick decides the pursuit of his family is worth the sacrifice of staying home.
This way of thinking can also be applied to the choices survivors make to flee or fight.
Should we flee or should we fight?
Rick and other survivors increase their chances of survival by strategically choosing when to flee or when to battle against their aggressors. They flee when the net benefit of doing so is relatively high compared to the net benefit of fighting.
In Season 1, Rick finds himself under a military tank surrounded by hoards of zombies in the heart of Atlanta. Thanks to another survivor, he identifies an opening. The net benefits of staying under the tank are almost zero. Though not certain, the net benefits of fleeing are positive. Rick chooses to flee and escapes. He makes his world a slightly better place by calculating the benefits and costs of his top two choices and making the choice that promises the highest benefits relative to costs. By surviving, Rick makes it possible for others to benefit from his keen leadership and survival skills in the future.
Many times, survivors stay for the fight. They do not have to fight. They could flee (in this case, the second best option). However, they choose to stay because the perceived net benefits of fighting exceed those of fleeing in that moment. Once the decision to stay is made, survivors then choose some combination of available weaponry, skills, and other resources to land a fatal blow to the head of a zombie, eliminating its deadly threat.
In economic terms, weapons are a form of capital that serve to help survivors eliminate zombies. The most popular weapons in The Walking Dead include guns, knives, crossbows, and swords. Which should each survivor choose to use given their options?
Rick could choose a fully loaded gun or a knife to stop a walker. Viewers frequently witness Rick using his gun over his knife. Why? For Rick, the perceived net benefits of using his gun exceed those of using his knife. Let’s say that Rick could stop six walkers with his signature Colt Python gun but only one with a knife.
In both instances, he stops walkers. That is the benefit.
Now, let’s consider the costs of using each from the economist’s perspective.
When Rick uses a knife to stop a walker in this example, he sacrifices getting six walkers with his gun. Stopping six walkers is the opportunity cost associated with using the knife. Likewise, the opportunity cost of using the gun is stopping one walker.
In each instance, Rick stops at least one walker. However, by using a gun, he stops five more walkers. Rick maximizes what he values most while minimizing his opportunity cost. His reasoning is sound and his decision strategic.
Now, let’s look at someone who is fiercely independent and strongly intuitive. First seen at the end of Season 2, Michonne is introduced to viewers with two handless, jawless zombies chained up and following her. Zombies do not go after other zombies. So, the lumbering zombies chained to Michonne help her move about without being fatally attacked, grabbed, and bitten. She considers this benefit to outweigh the cost of being slowed down by the zombies.
The same logic applies to explain why the expert hunter and skilled tracker, Daryl, favors his crossbow over a gun or a knife. Daryl can use any of these three resources to stop walkers. However, he stops the most walkers at the least cost by choosing to use his crossbow. By choosing a gun or knife over his crossbow, he gives up the opportunity to stop a higher number of walkers.
In light of specialized skills, knowledge, and past experiences, each survivor chooses the particular resource that promises to deliver the highest benefit at the lowest cost. In other words, by using economic reasoning, the individual and other members of the social group that are impacted by the actions and interactions of the individual and social group are made better off. Why? Economic decisions, made in the broadest sense of the words commonly used by economists promise to make everyone in the social group better off once the benefits and costs are considered and compared. Otherwise, decisions would not be strategic nor mutually advantageous for the individual who helps make up the social group.
You’re not alone: cooperate or clash?
Choosing a weapon is important, but choosing your friends and leaders can be even more so. A growing hoard of walkers will more than likely take out a lone survivor. However, a group of fighting survivors, each with their own skill set and work ethic, has a much better chance of escape and survival.
Individuals are self-interested. That’s true in our world as well as in the post-apocalyptic world of The Walking Dead. What economists have found remarkable is that individuals often discover that cooperating with others and looking out for their interests are simultaneously in their own and others’ best interest, especially over time.1 This is particularly true in the series The Walking Dead. Noncooperation means almost certain death. The chances of survival outside the group are very, very low. Consider the following examples.
The core group in The Walking Dead organizes its members to increase their chances of survival. They learn to divide and conquer so that each person can eat and drink regularly, find shelter, and decide when to fight or flee. When exchanges of time, talents, and treasures are mutually beneficial they increase in number and the people involved discover ways of getting ahead by serving others.
Season 3 is peppered with examples of why people who live cooperatively, over time, do better on most fronts than those who live in constant fear of exploitation or harm. In this season, Rick and his core group of survivors locate a prison. Here, they create an environment which provides relatively stable accommodations and some food, weapons, ammunition, and medicine. Over time, they redirect the energies once spent constantly battling the undead toward planting gardens and participating in some “regular” activities like reading, developing friendships, and talking about their futures together. That is, the members of this post-apocalyptic community move slightly away from operating only in survival mode. Viewers get a glimpse of hope for a future better life – even in a zombie-infested world.
Throughout Season 3 (as well as in future seasons), people come and go from settlements like the prison. Some wander in, while others emerge from newly discovered parts of the unknown areas surrounding the settlement. Those individuals viewed as helping the settlement flourish, in spite of the extra “costs” associated with having extra mouths to feed and people to protect, are invited to stay.
When conflict is chosen over cooperation, one person or group is likely gaining at the expense of another. The exploited person or group channels valuable resources toward arguing, attacking, or pushing back against whatever is held responsible for taking advantage of a situation or relationship. In growing and thriving communities, these are scarce resources that could have been used more strategically for the betterment ...
