The Economic Side of “Home Alone”

Yesterday I watched Home Alone for the first time and read Nobel Laureate Robert M. Solow’s obituary.

Unexpectedly, the two are related.

Home Alone

For everyone who, like me, had not seen Home Alone, the story is about a 8-year-old whose family (inadvertently) leaves him home alone. Late for the airport, they rush out without realizing he was not with them. Running to the gate, they just make the plane to Paris. During the flight, Kevin’s horrified mom realizes her oversight. There is so much more but I don’t want to spoil it.

Home Alone is a 1990 film. Until then, mobile calls came almost entirely from car phones. While we got the first truly functional portable phone in 1989 from Motorola, few of us had one.

In Home Alone, calls came from land lines and pay phones. There was no internet, no texting, no email. In Paris, the only way to call Chicago from the airport was on the pay phone. Furthermore, the family (actually two brothers’ families), had no security check. So, having overslept, they could run from the departures entrance onto the plane. In addition, the state-of-the-art video shown in the film was the VCR into which Kevin inserted a video tape.

As for pizza delivery, instead of DoorDash there was the pizza delivery man from the local pizza place. Interestingly, 10 pizzas were $122.50 or approximately $12.00 each. Now, the U.S. indie pizza place national average is $17.81 although it varies from state to state. According to the “Slice of the Union” report, at $22.52, Illinois is one of the more expensive states to buy an indie’s large pie.

Our Bottom Line: Economic Growth

Among Robert Solow’s countless contributions to economics during his 99 years, technological innovation could be #1.  Focusing on economic growth, in addition to an increase in labor and the accumulation of capital, he proved that technological progress plays an important role. Or, referring to developed economies, Dr. Solow said, “It turned out that by far the largest contribution came from something that can’t be explained by population growth, a labor supply increase or a growing stock of equipment. The largest contribution comes from technological innovation.”

Displaying massive economic gorwth since Home Alone in 1990, the GDP rose from $9.37 trillion in 1990 to $22 trillion in 2023.

At econlife, we detailed what Dr. Solow might have meant when he referred to the products and processes that fuel technological innovation.

I am not sure though if he had in mind Domino’s autonomous pizza deliveries.

My sources and more: Deciding to relax a bit yesterday, I watched Home Alone, then read Dr. Solow’s obituary, and wound up with today’s post.

Please note that today’s post has been edited for accuracy and because some images disappeared.