Film review of ‘Traffic’ It is a well-known fact that the totality of all our requirements exceeds the productive possibilities of all the sources that we have. That is why an absolute material abundance is impossible. This indisputable fact is the basic fact of Economics. The book ‘Economics’ (by McConnel and Brue, 17th edition; published by McGraw-Hill (2008)) is about the problems of the efficient use of the limited productive sources or their management in order to satisfy the human needs sa well as possible. May be it is not too evident, but the today’s problems suchs as inflation, unemployment, poverty and inequality, environment pollution, budget deficit ecc., they all have the same basic problem: the need of efficient use of the limited resources. Let’s see the film Traffic (Michael Douglas & Benicio Del Toro; R/2000) as an example in order to explain the main concepts of the textbook.
The film is about the drug war in America and Mexico and it vividly shows that this problem touches every corner of the country and not only people from the urban streets, but even the upper-class families. In one of the stories of the film a politician is at the head of the struggle against the drug and he finds out that his teenage daughter Caroline is a cocaine addict. There are three stories in the film and all of them are narrated in a different mode. Each story does not finish with the full stop and the film continue, and in such a way the producer wants to say that it cannot stop by itself. Let’s see see how the main concepts of the book ‘Economics’ can be identified in the lives of the protagonists of the film. All the people are only poor creations having their needs and requirements. Besides, we need love, the public acknowledgement, material wealth and other life comforts.
The Essay on Creation Stories Facts Or Myths
Gonzalez Professor English 11 June 1999 Creation Stories; Facts, or Myths The different peoples of the world have their own stories about the existence of human beings and the world. Creation stories are not hard to find. Explanations of creation range from the strictly scientific "Big Bang" theory to the religious stories of creation from the book of Genesis. Furthermore, the symbolic and ...
We see the struggle of some protagonists of the film in order to improve in their material status, their efforts to earn money for having the better life. And the object of Economics is to earn money for having the better life. In other words, Econimics is the study of the behaviour of people in the process of production, distribution and consumption of the material wealth and services in the world of the limited resources. People use all the material and natural resources for getting the goods and services that may satisfy their needs. The organisation of this activity is called ‘economic system’. But the limit of the resources does not permit to get an ideal solution of all the problems. The film ‘Traffic’ shows us the many points of view of different people and cultures and their relationship to the drug war.
We see this in the two different governments that are shown in the film. It shows brightly how the economic situation in the country influences on the life of every person. We’ve already seen that from the Economics’ point of view the unemployment is caused by the limited resources. It explains well the fact why the drugs come in America from the south frontier of America. The Mexico’s economic position is different from the United States’ one and the level of unemployment is higher so in the film the drugs were trafficked to the US by the poor truck drivers because of their need of the money. And it is one of the numerous confirmations to the above-discussed main concepts of Economics.
Bibliography:
Campbell R.
McConnell, University of Nebraska, Stanley L. Brue, Pacific Lutheran University: Economics: Principles, Problems, and Policies, 17/e, McGraw-Hill, 2008 Campbell R. McConnell, University of Nebraska, Stanley L. Brue, Pacific Lutheran University: Economics: Principles, Problems, and Policies, 16/e, McGraw-Hill, 2005.
