(Image: My Girlfriend Is an Agent, University of Wisconsin)
Dr. Uwe E. Reinhardt of Princeton University is an expert on the economics of health care. He's a widely-sought speaker on the topic and has published regularly in the New York Times to an audience of millions.
By his own admission, he has no idea what he's talking about. So Dr. Reinhardt has decided to instead teach about Korean television dramas, of which he has watched many:
After the near‐collapse of the world’s financial system has shown that we economists really do not know how the world works, I am much too embarrassed to teach economics anymore, which I have done for many years. I will teach Modern Korean Drama instead.
Although I have never been to Korea, I have watched Korean drama on a daily basis for over six years now. Therefore I can justly consider myself an expert in that subject.
Inevitably, some of aspects of his former profession are creeping into his current one. He describes how Korean dramas depict hospitals:
Finally, every good Korean drama has many scenes at super clean hospitals with good‐looking doctors and nurses. Koreans love their hospitals and seem to run to them whenever they have a cold or a headache or are lovesick or simply feel “stress.”
To an economist like me, this fondness for hospitals is surprising, because hospitals are expensive in Korea and much of the bill is not covered by Korea’s National Health Insurance system. Price‐elasticity of demand does not seem to work in Korean drama.
This is all most likely a joke, as Dr. Reinhardt appears to still be employed by Princeton University as a professor of economics.
-via Marginal Revolution