Rodney Dangerfield's First Economics Class

I can agree because everywhere I ever worked in production once it got past being promoted to lead mechanic everything was so political that I knew some guys who took a demotion to get what they call "back on their tools", because they couldn't stand the politics.

Ah, you must also be from Texas.... lol 😂😆😂😂😂

Liberal beaurocrats

How about protection money

If you believe your City/County Commissioners can afford their home, lifestyle & campaign expenses on just the salary they're given... you want to be lied to.

What’s a Widget ?

It's just like a Fidget only different

Widgets actually exist. They're a mini app for a smart phone to do common tasks with one click.

It’s a fictional product… it…doesn’t…matta 🤣

A widget is a software product. Basically if you have an iPad with a little spot that tells you the weather or the news without opening the application, that’s a widget.

You must be in NY, CA or one of the five swing states.

Z

@@driftalaska6129 North Carolina

​@@driftalaska6129 it's almost in all states sadly. Corruption has grown like a cancer in this country

@@driftalaska6129 you mean the 2 states with significantly higher productivity, who donate a large portion to the republican poor states through taxes and who both have a lower murder rate than Alaska per FBI 2020 for instance.

I've had a mixed bag of this actually. I was once apprenticed to a individual who is supposed to show me the ropes after I took a course from that same individual at a college. When I got to the job I found out this person was really good at BSing her way through the job but really didn't do as much as you think she would being how she talked a good game. That's when I found out that sometimes when you're in the real world there are people who stick to what they know and when they do that one it's really hard to replicate because they found a system that works for them but is there sometimes really not transferable to anybody else.

@@LateLost agreed. Not all have been good, I do remember one that was awful. And I have had a few career instructors that were amazing. Was just a general rule 🙂

I went to community college, worked as an English tutor while studying, and then transferred out to UCLA. my Hierarchy Of Practical Education goes: 1) Teaching nobodies 2) Learning from nobodies 3) Elite university

I totally agree. I recently got my associates of arts as a full time traditional student. I loved night classes. I remember my psychology class. The professor had her doctorate in psychology, however her full time job was as a real estate agent. Are class was so diverse in many ways (age, jobs, race, relationship status,etc) Really made for great conversation and learning material. Also going to a community college or a small college is great because the instructors are not research bond. They actually have the time and effort to teach.

@@turbo84gn 🙂🙂🙃

The sacred and the propane

I live in Hackensack NJ. Town is run by wealthy Italian 'families'. Both Construction, and Waste Disposal.

@@davebartosh5 but If they weren’t Italian you wouldn’t mind?

@@scottsodyssey2485 I have news for you. There's a thing called the Italian mafia. I've got no problem with law abiding Italians. I love Italian food.

Yes. I work in Social Work and also wish I had listened more closely to the lessons in this film. Rodney was talking about how school teaches you theory but life is entirely different. I learned more from a seasoned Social Worker who had worked on the streets for years than I did in all four years of my degree. I wish he had been teaching my classes as I would have been more effective when I started my career. This film is a classic.

Yeah, it's an unfortunate reality that grift and graft are essential parts of business operation, but reality none the less

And in every single mandatory corporate training, grift & graft "are not tolerated." Riiiiight.

So that's why I am having so much trouble trying to get my house built. I've been silly enough to be legitimate.

I was in electrical construction for over 15 years. It's just as Mr. Melon put it.

Mafia payoffs hA ha

Of course he knows more, He's a self made multi millionaire businessman while the Professor is just another jackass talking about stuff he memorized but couldn't apply.

It's is just a movie. A comedy.

Vietnam is not the . Mo I I8

@@jmark7390 he just explained that it's a character. Can you understand English?

He was able to succeed without college. So why does he want his son to go to college?

@@leonardo899 I would imagine so that the son can cite his own credentials in his future career so people can't just accuse him of getting everything from his father.

Look genius, he said "immaterial for the purposes of our discussion here". That doesn't mean that in practise it doesn't matter, it means he's explaining principles that apply whatever the product.

That’s a fact!!

@@boliusabol822 No it does matter. It matters because the first thing that your investors and customers are going to ask you is "Why don't you outsource it to China?"

@@boliusabol822 to be fair however in an academic setting and an introductory course the very high level principles are important for students to know/learn. It is remarkable how few business people actually understand these basics as well. Worse yet, don't even know what questions to ask.

@@boliusabol822 It matters, considering the first thing he went into is construction costs. Construction costs will be affected by whatever it is you're building. It affects the amount of space you need, and the type of equipment you need, and all the hidden costs Rodney brought up are a real thing.

So true. It reminds me of a line in a song called Prime by The Siege. “Go to school to make a living or teach yourself to make a fortune.”

I don’t disagree, but Mark Twain did not originate this saying.

I believe it was I never let schooling get in the way of a good education.

I never let governmental indoctrinational camps nor mainstream media propaganda interfere with my critical thinking - Michael Brownlee

Churchill was reported to have said: the only time my education was interrupted- was when I went to school.

Those that can, do. Those that can't, teach.

Maybe bribes and kickbacks is what you do but it’s not part of the legitimate youtube world

@@jacobo9611 tell that to Nasty Piglosi and any elected official, because once you decide to build your factory all of a sudden the red zones rise up

@@joshuatift4640 haha, she needs to go, that life long congressman hack

That's college in a nutshell for you

Get a job stop loafing around

@@careditor No, don't be silly. He's gotta have dough to loaf, and for that he needs to join a union.

Right, if you don’t have a good product that you can make a good margin on and actually sell, then you’re screwed!

I have no idea where I read it, but in the past year I read a column that said, "GM makes loans, not cars". Something like that. They also said that it didn't matter what GM made, just so that they could get the buyer to finance it through them.

It was the very first day of business class. The teacher was just doing a "basic" warm up lesson to get the class thinking. Deciding on a product and how to produce, market, and sell it will take an entire unit to teach.

@@timbrown5576 He wanted to talk about construction costs. You don't know what it will cost until you know what size facility and what equipment you need. You don't know what size facility and what equipment you need until you know what you are producing. Therefore you should start with the product.

Yeah lol, even a yard sale ain't going to amount to much if you're selling a bunch of shit 😁

And in 1962, a Yale student named Fred Smith wrote a paper for an economics class, outlining overnight delivery service in a computer information age. He doesn't remember what he got, but figures it was a C grade like he usually got. He later started something called Federal Express. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_W._Smith#Early_years

I love Raising Canes. Great food and sweet ice tea. In 1985, Houston attorney Joe Jamail won a $11 billion (yes, BILLION) verdict for his client Pennzoil against Texaco. Before that, while in law school, one of Jamail's enlightened professors gave him a bad grade on an exam and advised him to drop out and go back to Houston to work in his Lebanese family's grocery business. Smart professor (yeah, right).

I know nothing about Raising Cane's or its history, but to be fair to the professor, maybe it really was a crap proposal, and the professor's feedback helped them make it better.

Mostafa , Chick-Fil-A?

Smart kids! (Stupid Professor)!!!

I’ve always been good at diagnosing problems in my head but I’m absolutely horrible at showing others how to do it. Most people are capable of doing it with a good teacher.

Sorry to hear you went into a trade.

Very cool. I’m sure he would be pleased

@@randymillhouse791 lol. Trade schools are more critical and practical than most college degrees.

@@rwebster1234 No they are not. I have seen Toolmakers and shop employees my age (58) that look WAY older than deskbound me. Working with one's back is fine when young but get into ages 40 and 50 and the toll becomes VERY apparent. I do not care about how critical the work is. Even though that is true, I don't advise anyone to work a labor job past age 35. It wears the body down tremendously. Retirement begins on crutches and ends in knee, hip, shoulder replacement surgeries and finally a wheelchair.

By his 3rd or 4th intervention you see kids taking notes from Rodney, not the teacher.

He did.

Yeah that professor don't know shit LOL

Writing down "kick backs to the carpenters...that'll cost you." Scribbling furiously.

bmo it means they actually had the good sense to listen to someone older with experience instead of someone who just knows what he learned from just books.

bmo. TRUMP FOR UNIVERSITY DIRECTOR

Paul Leger. Doesnt know shit

RetroGuy76 me: yes i would like a 5.7 million dollars loan. Bank: that is a substantial amount... me: dont worry im building a factory for widgets, i will manufacture 7000 every week and should be able to pay back the loan fully within 15 year period!! Bank: what the fuck is a widget??!! Me: a product that doesnt exist! Bank: okay sir you see the exit on the right hand side?! you have 3 minutes to leave or i will call security for wasting my time!

@@jakep1979 brilliant absolutely brilliant hahaha

,

If Americans were forced to own a business for a year that would result in the comprehension that whenever a politician called for a tax increase Americans would immediately comprehend a ha we have an efficiency problem not a funding problem.

@Mike Fernandez Yep, very prominent during the dot com boom. You could literally walk into a board meeting with an idea on a napkin and walk out with millions of dollars from investors.

This 🎥 has class.

Those who can't do... teach.

@@lance862 HEY! I resemble that remark! LMAO! OK, seriously, that happens more often than not... I got blessed with being able to jump to teaching at a local college (trades - specifically automation and mechanical technologies) after 30+ years in the field. I did really well in life, and it was time to give back. We got everything paid off, figured out what we could live on comfortably, and made the jump. But yeah, I get so frustrated with the many other faculty and instructors I've run into that have no clue about the real world.

So how much cereal did you get during your MBA?

It's not so much Rodney is wrong so much as these sort of details aren't appropriate for an into level class.

@@benconrad5127 You sound like a butthurt academic.

@@benconrad5127 you must be a teacher. you realize it is a comedy movie, right?

at least Kellogg wasn't a quant jock factory.... lucky bastard /kgsb @ pitt, back before it went downhill

I love that line "How about fantasy land"?!? Hilarious!!!!

Tell it to your investors

More like: “Dudnt matta… Heh, tell dat to da bank!”

Id rather be at war with the government.

@@roamer1389 That's a war you can't win. The business owner is the government's favorite target.

@@Archedgar and you wonder why small business owners commit suicide.

@@roamer1389 Yep, my friend and I have a startup and government is easily our biggest headache, and we're working with lasers and crap

@@Archedgar SMALL business owner. And they're only government's target because the government is in the hands of corporations.

THAAAAT'S not a note book? THIS IS A NOTEBOOK ! Crikkey.

Look for the UNION LABEL :) SING IT !!

That's why teachers, teach and don't do.

He's 100% correct. It takes real world experience to know, and Thornton Mellon knew exactly what was up in real life, not Fantasyland like that uptight asshole thinking about "legit business". It takes bribes, contributions, lawyers, assistants, teamster cooperation, multiple unions, and other kickbacks to have shit done.

bluehavencd also mr. melon made a valid point about the Japanese on the labor cost because many things are outsourced to foreign countries from the United States because of the labor costs. This guy was thinking in an earlier time the professor when manufacturing was viable but he wasn't keeping up with important trends like mr. melon was. Proves that a college education isn't everything

+mannyistheman2221 exactly a great point. But now even Japan outsources to China and India becuase Japan itself is way too expensive. This movie was made over 30 years ago, imagine how antiquated that elitist snobby economy teacher really was?

JamesFrancesco oh shut the hell up

Rodney got real good writing.

This is the difference between academic experience and real world know how.

@@Ryooken How true, but he had help with two other writers.

@Sigkim The, director, said that about John Lithgow during a scene he did for Buckaroo Bonzi, as the mad scientist. John read the script and took that character to a point the writers didn't put in. So yes any good actor can be catalist for the movie or show that has Oscar tagged.

How yah doin' Barney.

Paxton Whitehead too. Of course I've always preferred Englishmen anyway.

Just back then? Heck try getting something built in NYC or Atlantic city now and you still have to work with the Mob. Many of the unions there are still mafia controlled.

Great name Duffer

@@1978mcduff Yeah, they don't call it "organized crime" for nothing; )

SJWs for the protection of Tall & Fat people would skewer this movie if it came out today.

If your talking about NYC, its still like that today. The cosa nostra in new york has gone through a serious revival the last 5 to 8 years. They definetely control the labour unions still.

So true Walter. I personally liked just a smidge more than Caddy Shack.

@@davidrichter9164 yes, but it had notably less in the way of a topless Cindy Morgan

Says he's not going to waste their time with useless theory. Proceeds to perpetuate the theory of "legitimate business world."

When I was teaching I would get comments from the students that they liked the way I would teach. I would use myself as an example and talk about how to use the ideas I talked about. By the way, I taught psychology for almost 40 years.

There's such a thing as real life that Dangerfield brings up and then there is school which teaches you things as if it's a perfect world.

Classic example of someone who has actually been engaged in real life business, versus a professor full of himself and his theories.

Went thru similar situational scenario w/F&B instructor. ALMOST came to debate-level classroom "exercise!"-lol

I don't remember his name but he was in Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Paxton Whitehead. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy does not show in his credits.

Yes. People just see the character and forget he's playing the part. Which is the essence of good acting.

I specially love the crisp precise way he enunciates his words, he is truly a great actor.

He does a great job too. And don’t forget Sam Kinison!

I heard Trump is set up the same way. He licensed his name on the property with “Trump” brand.

I need to go find the scene in this movie where Sam Kennison was teaching history!

@@aarongranger exactly

@@hdn4nd kzhead.info/sun/np19f5ZuhmiafJ8/bejne.html

The true difference between book smart & street smart

The answer for the past 20 years has been China. I am a manufacturing and supply chain consultant with 40 years of global experience. Over and over I hear the same thing - We will just outsource it to China. When I ask the question Why? the answer is always "because it's cheaper and easier". This is exactly why they need me to help them answer the question why. Many times the answer is China is not cheaper and not not not easier.

@@counciousstream As we are discovering now. Everything from China has to come in by boat. When the boats don't run or the docks don't unload fast enough, things get unreliable. There there is the problem of China.

*Even China itself has 86 cargo planes and recently launched the world's biggest cargo plane. In addition to all the cargo planes from other countries. So how exactly does everything from China come through boats?*

@@danielmcgillis270 I understand your point. SC risks have been very high since US companies moved production to China. When manufacturing moved to China these companies became essentially brands. Once the Chinese contractors had the money from making the stuff they bought the US brands. Fewer and fewer products are designed in the US now. The "trusted brand" is now entirely owned by a company in China. Companies in China are partnerships between the government and the Chinese entity. This is the problem of China and it has all been brought about by American Business people chasing lower costs and consumers buying all of the lower cost goods. We asked for this. Freight moves by aircraft in addition to ships. You would be surprised at how much.

@@counciousstream Thank you for this thread. I actually learned a little bit reading these comments (that doesn't happen often). And, yes, I'm being honest and sincere with my comment. Business, manufactoring, etc is in no way anything near my area of knowledge (let alone expertise), but I do enjoy learning new things. Thank you.

I had a sociology prof like that once too... early 90s and he was talking about "slave reparations" even back then. Unreal world they live in sometimes...

snakeguy76 I'd have told him no, as long as the garbage continued to get burned I had no disposal problems.

Was it Palumbo d.b.a. Orange Crush?

I heard of a similar system for marketing cloth towel service to small restaurants back in the 1960s.

I can't say I did not think of this movie when I went back to school 10 years ago, at age 48... got my technology degree, worked in the field for 5 years, and now am back at the school I graduated from, teaching those classes... I try every day to NOT be that stupid professor.

80% of my professors are all successful businessman that use real world experience.

Remember Dan Ackroyd's line from Ghostbusters where he says "I've worked in the real world,they expect results."

Well, they _can't_ teach the parts that are illegal.

@@americanrroyalty "what's the products?" drug trafficking doesn't count Jose.

True!I worked in the Hotel business for nearly 18 years.. I would meet people ... who would say.... really! I'am taking Hotel management in College...I can't wait to do it! I would think to myself..... (Just let wait until they get a job!, It's a completely different ballgame in the Real World)

Exactly so a business has to be in the real world. It's better to teach how a real business is working than an invention bc in life reality brings its own challenges that imagination doesn't. Show them statements of costs breakdown, profit margins, salaries, taxes, bank fees, etc .

Great line.

Beautiful!

Lol

"I'm in the waste management business, everybody immediately assumes you're mobbed up. Its a stereotype. And its offensive...And you're the last person I'd want to perpetuate it. "

Dude. My friend is fourth generation in waste management and has nothing to do with the mob today but before Chris Christie and Rudy took out the families his GrandDad had no option but to be mobbed up. The alternative was being buried in a landfill.

@@1noetic yeah but it sure was in the 80s..

The reason it is a stereotype now is because it was a reality back then.

Most of the time, you're sadly correct.

So much hate for teachers nowadays. It’s sad.

It doesn't matter what location...

Yeah I bet this didn't happen. No name no location no nothing that anyone can purport as true.

@@3182john You would lose that bet. Too many people worship politicians. There are politicians that are in it for whatever they can steal. You can believe it or not. I really don't care.

This is true. I am close to a situation where the municipality is an old line political machine. The 3 top guys(mayor and 2 others) were greased with bags of cash. Then they recommended the project and it sailed through the approval process.

@@ralphmacchiato3761 Tell that to the bank!

I teach at a college - but I don't hang out with most of the faculty... you nailed why.

lol how about fantasy land

Where did he go?

@@MrDasmaster he died in 15 years ago

I can that man was born in the early 1920s lol

His legacy is immortal, and beloved.

What do you mean

He doesn't know

Yep. It is almost as though the vast majority of the leading businesspeople of the world...who bend over backwards to get their children into top universities, understand something that you and many other posters here do not. These universities have tremendous value.

Funny how many of those children become successful while you're writing KZhead comments on a movie scene believing it to be reality.

People always like to bring up select examples of people who made success despite failing college when the vast majority of businessmen went to college.

Not only has it been 30 years, but everything Rodney says here still rings true............

Marc I love ur profile pic

Dane Insane did your dad hire an accountant

Those who can't do...teach

@@davidackermam5826 And that is what is wrong with the system. If they can't hack it, then they don't know enough to teach what they don't know.

@@davidackermam5826 And those who can't teach........ Administrate

College makes you educated but it doesn’t make you smart.

I hope you're not slandering the poor fellow by suggesting he would have been a Trump supporter.

Cyber Pleb he would be.

+Josh. Based on what? He appeared to be quite liberal in his thinking and described himself as a "logical atheist"... not your typical Trump supporter (particularly with respect to the logical part).

Might be a NeverTrumper, but he smacked down a fantasy-centric thinks-he's-smart college professor pretty good, fact didn't we just have a "president" that was one of those?

+MGB. You do realize that this is a movie, right? The (very obvious) joke here is that this professor has no real world experience. What does this have to do with political alignment? If anything, I would have pegged him for a stuffy conservative.

Oh yeah it was totally in the script

OG MTV Cribs.. complete with Oingo Boingo

They also need to teach the most important subject school's never teach. money! how to earn it. how to handle it. and how to spend it.

My local college (where I teach trades and actually run one program) - our programs for the trades has a basic 5 year rule - you need to have at least 10,000 hours (5 years at 40 hours a week) work experience outside before you come back to teach... we've made a couple of exceptions, and those have nearly never worked well.

I> talkin to a professor

Rodney got real good writing.

@West Bay K. unions were a necessary evil with my last job. Teamsters to be exact. Company management and upper workers were a good ole boys club that tried to screw with people that weren’t part of the clique or didn’t like.

@@jondstewart something the teamsters created. Create the problem then provide the solution

Unions have their purpose in some areas, but in others they just become the big guy themselves.

@@wlonsdale1 This is also true of politicians.

This is why no one uses union labor anymore. And it's much better for it.

In the professor's defense, even though Melon's points were spot on, there are serious ethical considerations for an educator to acknowledge and endorse what truly is criminal behavior. It's real politic, but it is also something not really appropriate for an academic discussion.

@@jamesbuchanan4414 I heartily disagree - the kids need to know that this is what happens, and what it looks like when it comes on them... that they may or may not want to participate in that behavior is certainly a thing (they can start reporting the thuggery up the chain, as it were) but not discussing "inappropriate" actions is where SO MANY problems arise (and not just in the trades). And understand, I say this as a college level trades educator. We discuss stuff like the ethics of how unions, trades, and government inspections work. If we didn't, we're leaving the kids exposed and frankly doing them a disservice.

@@CaptainSeamus I think the issue here is the embrace of it as an operational reality. It's less a warning against it, and more of a primer on how to engage with it. It's a nuance thing. I absolutely agree that ethics need to be addressed, especially how much dirtier the construction industry is in the c-suite than any mud-ridden job site you'll ever see.

@@jamesbuchanan4414 I understand your point... as I alluded, I was in industry for 30+ years before going back to school to finish up and now teaching full time - but the reality slaps a lot of new kids out in the industry very hard indeed.