Episode 11 (S2) of the Smith Family Manga is now available – intergenerational tensions arise within the Smith household

Today (February 13, 2025), MMTed releases Episode 11 in the Second Season of our Manga series – The Smith Family and their Adventures with Money. Have a bit of fun with it while learning Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) and circulate it to those who you think will benefit.

The Smith Family is a middle-class family living in a city somewhere in the world. The second-generation parents are university educated and have professional occupations. Their two kids attend the local public school.

Episode 11 opens with Elisabeth’s father and mother visiting the Smith home.

Immediately, Elizabeth’s father, Tom Jenkins turns on the TV because Professor Noitawl is coming on the national finance show.

He tells everyone else to shut up as it is his ‘favourite show’.

Professor Noitawl is pontificating about how the ageing population will force the younger generations to pay more taxes to ensure the government’s ‘debt bomb’ is paid off.

He also claims the younger generation are to blame for their inability to buy houses because they spend “all their income on smashed avo breakfasts in cafes and iPhones’.

Tom agrees and reacts to Elizabeth’s disdain by claiming the kids should work harder and stop having fancy breakfasts and staring at their phones all day.

Kevin cannot help himself and points at the precarity of low-wage work that his generation faces as the norm, quite distinct from the prospects that his grandparents had to deal with – career work, high pay, good benefits, good retirement pensions.

Elizabeth and Kevin point out some currency realities but the grandparents cannot be shifted.

They love Noitawl and his nonsensical economics.

The resulting discussion (dispute) canvasses all the major issues regarding ageing societies, intergenerational equity, and the real challenges governments face when confronted with rising dependency ratios.

Tom’s position and inconsistency is highlighted when he claims that the government should not be employing people and Kevin points out that just last week, his grandfather had said the youth of the nation should be forced to do military service – the employer being the government.

If you have any feedback we will appreciate it, other than ‘this sucks’.

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The manga is available in both English and Japanese.

Next episode – Episode 12 – the final in this Season – will be available on March 13, 2025.

We will then take a month’s Manga break before releasing Season 3 where things are predicted to get really interesting.

A trailer for Season 3 might read like this:

TRAILER FOR SEASON 3

Who wins the election?

What is Ryan planning – a complete change of tack?

Will Elizabeth take Ryan back?

What will Professor Noitawl have to say about the current state of affairs.

The kids head to Japan on a school excursion.

A visitor from Africa gets the kids at school thinking.

George Jones gets out of prison and learns what Eva has been up to in the lambo.

That is enough for today!

(c) Copyright 2025 William Mitchell. All Rights Reserved.