Monday, July 12, 2010

The Economic Impact of Vampires: True Blood Edition

Suppose that 10% of the world's population turns into vampires in the manner of the HBO series True Blood. I'm less interested in the "blood sucking" and horror part. So ignoring that I wonder what the impact of two changes to a portion of the population would be

1. They cannot go out in light
2. Their "natural" life expectancy is hundreds of years


How would these changes impact the economy? In terms of number 1, you would think this would increase the number of all night businesses. Also property values in areas with less sunlight would increase (winter cabin in Anchorage anyone?).

In terms of number 2. I wonder, would vampires have higher or lower savings rates? On the one hand if vampires saved enough they could quit working after a hundred years of compound interest. On the other hand vampires do not age and could continue working. This aspect may be worth thinking about if science discovers a way to substantially increase our life expectancy.

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2 comments:

Britt said...

Have you seen Daybreakers?

It postulates that almost all of the population turns into vampires and works out some of the interesting consequences.

I haven't watched True Blood, but there is probably some overlap of ideas and some ideas that are distinct.

Seth Gitter said...

Britt,

I'll have to check that out. True Blood is a good series, although we are in the middle of the second season and it's starting to get a little too wierd.

I also liked Let the Right One In a vampire movie but not too much economics.