The Forgotten Effects of Discovery

Disclaimer: This Article Contains Spoilers

Without all of the memes, Monsters Inc. is simply a movie about monsters (called Scarers) working at a company called Monsters Inc. The corporation generates electricity for their monster city by entering children’s closets and scaring them to collect scream power.

By the end of the movie, it is revealed that the CEO of Monsters Inc. had been planning to kidnap children to solve the city’s emerging energy crisis. However, this solution was rendered useless by the film's main duo, Mike Wazowski and James Sullivan, when they discovered a new, and much more effective, method of energy production: laughter. 

It turned out that laughter could be up to 10,000 times more effective than screams at producing energy, meaning that a shift in the means of energy production would simultaneously fix the energy shortage and eliminate any ethical issues.

This all sounds great, but perhaps too idealistic. From an economics standpoint, some questions start to arise. Is there a monster government? Where is the government? Why were they not helping the people during the energy crisis? What should they do about this new discovery? The scarers could become jobless since they don’t have the skills to produce laughter energy. What happens if the economy is not occupationally mobile?

This massive discovery would change the entire monster job market. Thousands could be unemployed when scaring becomes a useless skill. Would this discovery cause mass structural unemployment (where a change in the structure of the economy causes workers to lose their jobs)? 

The Canon Events

First of all, some of you may have watched the following TV series and shorts of the events after the Monsters Inc. movie and saw how the story played out afterwards. The TV series “Monsters at Work” answers a few of our questions. 

The movie follows  Tylor Tuskmon, a recent graduate of the prestigious scare program of Monsters University. He is devastated to find that his work has been rendered obsolete in the largest energy-producing firm in the city, Monsters Inc. He attempts to work and understand the process of comedy and laughter now that the company has completely shifted their means of energy production. Meanwhile, Mike Wazowski (as the sole laugh-producer or “jokester” of the entire city) is overworked and exhausted as he tries to maintain energy production all on his own under CEO and best friend James Sullivan. Finally, Tylor is faced with a choice when he receives a job offer from Monsters Inc. competitor Fear Co. to become a scarer, considering whether he should leave his idols, Mike and James, or leave for the prestige and matching skillset of scaring. 

Immediately After The Film’s Events: Specialisation into Laughter

James P. Sullivan, CEO of Monsters Inc., decides that the conversion from using scares to using laughter is morally justified. I’m confident that some business-minded nerds will be annoyed that James Sullivan is willing to perform such a risky move for the sake of ethics. Indeed, relying on Mike alone to produce all the energy of the city (no matter how efficient) has long term consequences to the business. Mike’s unhealthy ingestion of energy drinks to stay awake for hours has detrimental effects on his health/productivity. The firm is limiting its productivity by leaving door-stations empty/unused; the key-person risk would leave investors unconfident and unwilling to support such a risky venture. From a technical standpoint, it would have been wise to keep some Scarers on the scare floor and slowly phase them out as more jokesters are found. This ensures that Mike does not have to overwork himself entirely (past the point that should be acceptable according to regular labour laws), that the company maintains acceptable productive capacity, and that the monsters will still have employment for the time being (and the monster trade unions won’t violently protest). 

Regardless, this still inevitably leaves many Scarers obsolete and without a job. Many people face similar problems today, where their job is slowly being replaced by AI. It has quickly risen to prominence due to the cost-saving opportunities of the tool, giving business owners the opportunity to drastically cut down on labour costs by replacing them with AI. In contrast, many fight against generative AI in destroying the livelihoods of artists and creatives. Concerns of increasing water usage impacting neighbors nearby to data centers are frequently raised. Above all, everyone risks being replaced by these machines. Along the same lines, laughter as a new discovery wields a double-edged sword. On one hand, firms like Monsters Inc. are able to increase productivity and efficiency, lowering the cost of production by omitting the requirement to hire new staff. However, the rise of unemployment creates widespread poverty and lowers standard of living.

 This typically has to be fixed, usually by the government, through the use of supply-side policies or government spending. 

The Film Theory: The Role of a Government in Managing a Discovery

The government should be supporting those who have been found unemployed due to the new change. This can take the form of unemployment benefits or welfare payments, money given to the financially dependent to help support them. However, this is only a short term solution that may encourage these people to stay unemployed. Thus, the government must, either, “fix” the population to match the demand for jobs, or change the law. The former can involve teaching laughter techniques in public schools or creating training schemes. While this will maintain the productivity of the economy, it may keep many individuals unemployed if they aren’t skilled enough to perform comedy. Meanwhile, the latter could involve ensuring a minimum number of Scarers remaining under employment, which keeps a larger proportion of the population paid wages. However, this would prevent the economy from being properly efficient, risking a return towards the energy crisis at the beginning of the movie. 

Another point to consider is the privatisation of energy in Monstropolis. Monsters Inc. is a private company owned by the Waternoose family that has monopolised energy production in the city for several generations (of course, before the establishment of their competitor, Fear Co.).

How has the government managed to keep energy affordable? Has the government even intervened in this process at all? 

Realistically, a government may purchase a share to nationalise this sector and help keep prices under control, or impose anti-trust laws to prevent the monopoly from existing. Essentially, such monopolies cannot exist (especially for necessities like energy) as customers must accept any price the monopoly wishes to charge. Furthermore, the private company encouraged the previous CEO, Henry Waternoose, to turn to kidnapping children to fix the energy shortage and become profitable. Usually, this would be a sign to nationalise energy production (meaning to make it a government-owned firm). However, we don’t see the presence of a government except for the Child Detection Agency, an organisation that inspects firms for the presence of children (they believe them to be toxic) nor any attempt to make energy more regulated. 

In a sense, the Monsters Inc. movie is warning viewers about the dangers of privatising a critical economic sector. 

Conclusion: Why Bother?

“It’s not that deep, it’s just a kids movie.”

Correction – it is a kids movie. It is characteristic of several early 2000s Pixar movies where our appreciation and understanding of them evolves through time. We wonder where the monster government is, we pick up on the hidden adult jokes we were not able to as children, and we learn to appreciate the nuances of the story that we simply didn’t understand before. Using such films to understand these new topics doesn’t limit the potency of the original moral of the story, but can add to the effectiveness of the entire story and teach us more as we get older. 

When we were children, we may have cheered at Mike Wazowski and James P. Sullivan for saving the energy crisis of Monstropolis while becoming best friends with the adorable human girl Boo. Now, many of us are anxiously wondering if we will have a job in the future, or if AI will take that job instead. These movies can tell us that things can’t be so cut and dry. It makes us start to wonder, are Mike and James the “bad guys” for indirectly leaving all scarers of the Monster world unemployed? What is the lesser of two evils between mass unemployment and crippling inefficiency? Can Sam Altman really be seen as a “hero” like Mike and James for saving costs for business owners worldwide?