I recently taught in a school with an Eagle mascot. At this school, you could earn “Eaglebucks” - physical, red coupons you could spend towards activities and prizes. Quite literally Monopoly money.
Public School Economics Lesson - He’s the Banker :-)
For example:
$10 Eaglebucks got you entrance to the high school basketball game + a slice of pizza and can of soda.
$5 Eaglebucks let you leave class 15 minutes early on Friday afternoon
$2 Eaglebucks got you a candy bar at the candy stand in the cafeteria
To earn Eaglebucks, students had to do the usual array of chores in the classroom and school. Clean the lunch tables -you get an Eaglebuck. Do some extra credit assignments — earn a few Eaglebucks. etc. etc.
As I watched the Eaglebucks economy go round and round, I could not help but notice kids are missing a great value!
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The EagleBucks Exchange Rate
When finding exchange rates and performing price discovery, its best to use the most liquid, fixed, and standardized product possible to set the initial rate of exchange. A simple Hershey bar (Kid’s version of Gold!) can easily do the trick.
In 2024, a standard Hershey bar goes for about $1.69 at a grocery store checkout.
Using this as a base, we can set the Eaglebucks Exchange rate at $2 Eaglebucks = $1.69 or
EGLUSD = 0.845
1 Eaglebuck is worth about 0.845 USD. Now we’re cooking.
So continuing along with an established exchange rate, $5 Eaglebucks = 5 * 0.845 or $4.22 for 15 minutes of free time. Multiplying that by 4, you get an hourly rate of $16.90. That’s better than minimum wage!
Similarly, $10 Eaglebucks would be $8.44. Pretty good deal for a night out, a meal and a drink. (Gone are the days you could get a slice for $1 at the 2Bros in Manhattan )
Still the GOAT
Yet, despite the obvious value you get for the upper tier prizes, each day at lunch, the kids would RUN to that candy counter to get their Eaglebucks candy. Meanwhile, almost no one was willing to pay the $10 to go to the game after school (We’ll ignore that the high school team sucks and always losses….so do the Carolina Panthers after all) No wonder people are growing up with a warped sense of value for what things cost and should be worth. They’re missing a great deal!
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Thoughts? Questions? Comments?
Reach out! Maybe I’ll do a full post on the topic or as a Q&A
