Questions tagged [economy]
For questions regarding wealth, trade, or financial concepts.
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What makes small-scale private star-harvesting profitable?
In a distant future where FTL interstellar travel is commonplace, there is a stable large-scale market for a commodity called photonic negentropy ("PhoNE" for short, though nobody remembers ...
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How valuable is the company that invents artificial intelligence? [closed]
I have a near-future story told about the invention (right word?) of AGI. In it, the company responsible for it goes from "no one has heard of it" to billion-dollar-capitalized practically ...
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What would motivate a spacefaring civilization with access to effectively infinite resources to expand [closed]
I'm developing sci-fantasy setting in which the Home Planet was destroyed in an extinction level screw-up by a bunch of wizards, but a few thousand individuals were able to flee into space, and then ...
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Are stainless steel railway tracks worth it?
In How long would it take unused railroad rails to corrode below usability?, we are asked how long railway tracks would last, and in my answer, I show that while ordinary steel railway tracks are ...
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What Are the Pitfalls of Using Diamonds as Currency? [closed]
Basically I have a world where people use diamonds as currency, and the reason they do this is because diamonds specifically are alchemically inert. Other useless metals like gold are nothing close to ...
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The miraculous substance of carrangan: can it exist, and what does it change about its planet of origin?
First, this account is a replacement for my old one, Jobah_HigherMind, because I forgot the password after being inactive for four months. But I’m moving away from Algennon questions, at least for now,...
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How would perpetual motion technology (and "free" energy) affect poverty?
I'm writing a near-future story in which a form of teleportation has been invented. It's only been around for few decades, and is still very complicated (and expensive) to build, so it's only used for ...
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Why would lunar megacorps install a government in this scenario? [closed]
The year is 2170. Ish. Humans have colonised Mars, but the planet has yet to rival the economic might of other solar system worlds. As of yet, the main colonial power in the sol system is our own ...
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How would you get a medieval economy to accept fiat currency?
So a nascent interstellar civilization is exploring the local stellar neighborhood when they encounter an earth-like inhabited planet with a developing medieval civilization. The Arcadians are roughly ...
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What could Kaiju do to stop us from travelling into deep space?
The world's overrun with Kaiju but, while they kill many and cause much destruction, our civilization continues, migrating inward, away from the coasts where the Kaiju typically occupy.
Question is ...
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How does a government that uses undead labor avoid perverse incentives?
The setting I'm working on is in terms of tech levels and society best comparable to early 20th century Earth. But with several big differences. One being the existence necromancy and mad science that ...
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What one change would put life on Easy Mode? [closed]
I'm worldbuilding a leisure society. Therefore, I'm trying to make the struggle-to-survive much easier than it is on Terra. The necessities of life (food, shelter, etc.) should be much easier to come ...
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Will disallowing inheritance reduce corruption?
Say, people can't inherit property or money from their families. Once a person dies and assuming all his dependents are above 18 years old, all his assets go to the government, get re-distributed or ...
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How to design a simple economic model for a Martian settlement?
I'm trying to design an economic model for my story world, starting from an individual settlement on Mars, then level by level, stepping up to one encompassing the entire Solar System. Aspects I'm ...
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Feasibility of the distributed prison [closed]
Sometimes an idea comes to you and resonates for what it represents and how it shapes the story rather than how logical or technologically inevitable it might seem. That's the current status of the ...
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Checks and balances in a 3 branch market economy [closed]
There are 3 branches of "government":
Companies
Labor Unions
Consumer Unions
Companies make money by selling goods/services, Labor Unions make sure Companies compensate workers fairly, and ...
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Implementing a system of "happiness currency" in a transhumanist society as a way to avoid wireheading
I am writing a transhumanist science fiction story that employs a system called "utility vouchers". A utility voucher is a redeemable unit of value that humans are allotted on an egalitarian ...
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Velociculture viability (Los Raptors Hermanos)
Assume we managed to revive the famed velociraptor. The real one, which is the size of a turkey, not the movie version.
How viable would it be to breed them for human consumption?
I've reviewed the ...
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How many customers per day would a medieval-era tavern serve on average in a big city? [closed]
Additionally, how many meals and/or drinks would they serve per day on average?
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How soon after first contact could an advanced civilization make large financial transactions on Earth?
One day, a portal, several hundred meters across, appears without warning above the Atlantic, roughly around the Bermuda triangle region. It hovers in mid air, immobile, 200 meters above the surface ...
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What items can a time traveler trade in medieval England to quickly acquire wealth? [duplicate]
I'm writing a story about a man from modern-day Liverpool, UK, who can travel 800 years in the past with a machine. He wants to become a nobleman in the past before going on adventures. He wants to ...
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Effects of industrialisation via runic magic in a Fantasy Economy
So, how would industrialisation via runecraft affect the economies involved in a high fantasy world?
I have some worldbuilding down below that you can use if you want, but you can also just use this ...
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Why would a space civ trade with a primitive civ?
A human space civilization once established a colony on a planet. Now, several centuries later, the people on this planet are only at a medieval level of technology. Whether by accident or on purpose, ...
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How to encourage an interstellar space industry to decentralize production processes?
I am currently designing a video game that is about space industrialization. The gameplay experience I want to go for are multiple star systems sprinkled with small, specialized industrial space ...
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At what price does a working Maxwell's Daemon Engine become uneconomic?
There is a TL:DR version below. Fluffy story version:
The law that entropy always increases holds, I think, the supreme position among the laws of Nature. If someone points out to you that your pet ...
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Realistically, how much redundancy needs to be added to crucial industries?
One thing I love to play with in worldbuilding is the dialectic of centralisation-decentralisation.
Decentralisation has many advantages: when something (e.g. food) is produced decentrally, ...
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Why is there so much unused mana flowing in my mana economy?
I asked some questions about creating a stable economy that uses mana as currency.
I'm stuck on a new problem trying to use it, why is there so much mana circulating in the economy already? I want ...
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Maximum economic growth rate in developed countries in the 21st century [closed]
Given a hypothetical 500M-1Bn population at the social, economic, political, financial, industrial, military, etc. capacities available in the most developed countries currently (2023, e.g. Nordic ...
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Are there ethical ways to profit from uplifting?
Humans have entered a period known as the biotech renaissance, where the advent of new forms of genetic modification gives rise to a host of new bioengineered life forms.
One of these are animals that ...
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Help me solve some paradoxes in this economic system
Normal economics: Alan sells a grenade to Bob for \$100, Bob uses it to blow up Charles. Alan gets $100 because Bob wanted the grenade. Bob gets the grenade because he wanted it. Alan is happy. Bob ...
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How will corporations ensure return on investment for funding slower than light colonization efforts?
Let's say a future world where faster than light communication exists, but not faster than light travel. There is a desire to colonize other worlds outside the solar system, but it's massively ...
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How can a small country dominate the world economy
On my planet, there are 5 continents and a few countries per continent. The continents are arranged as follows (this is Mercator Projection, and there is a large Pacific-like ocean between the two ...
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Justification for foreign intervention in an anarchist Middle East? [closed]
What would be a rational reason for Western countries to unethically intervene in the Middle East following a total economic collapse?
I'm writing a story where Middle Eastern countries descend into ...
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Why would 1/5 of earthlings prefer to live in orbit rather than on the surface? [closed]
The Great Depression (2030 - 2050) wiped out 2/3 of humanity, buried nation states and forced survivors to take concepts like democracy, sustainability and the environment really seriously.
The ...
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Life in a post-scarcity economy [closed]
Quoting Wikipedia, a post-scarcity is a theoretical economic situation in which most goods can be produced in great abundance with minimal human labor needed, so that they become available to all very ...
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How can a 900 pound item be sold? [closed]
There is a treasure chest. It is very heavy. It has valuables inside it. The owner wants to sell it to someone else. The item is not mobile and cannot be given to the other person physically. It is ...
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Creating an Abyss [closed]
I want to create a setting for my story that amplifies the themes of regret and the things we leave behind and feels like it has a grander purpose in the universe. I am drawing inspiration from the ...
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How could a the global economy have no money/collapse? [closed]
I would like a plausible way to tank the world economy. I am trying to make a political horror world, that would be very different from today. The basis should be a lack of money or decreased value of ...
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Would feudalism work in a post-industrial society?
In my world, World War 3 happens and most countries are devastated. Nuclear weapons are used and there is widespread anarchy in many places. Some countries are untouched but many countries completely ...
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Stable mana economy: how would mana transfer at death affect economic stability?
I've now asked some questions about the viability of a pure mana economy, and the answer is that it could work. I don't yet have a full world in mind for this, I'm mostly building up what a viable ...
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Can I use mana as currency if people are constantly generating more mana?
I want to use mana, used to fuel spells, as a sort of currency. Basically you pay for items not with a fiat currency but with your mana, which someone may later use to cast a spell. I don't have a ...
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What could a technologically lesser civilization sell to a more technologically advanced one?
In a Lil sci-fi universe I'm currently writing
Humanity has reached the stars, quickly establishing an impromptu interstellar colonial empire made up of hundreds of star systems, puttering along the ...
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The abundance of which material would provide the most improvement to world economy?
The World has just received an official communication: on December the 21st 2022 we will receive a special visit.
Techno Mage Master Balmelgas will be visiting Earth on his wonder ship Sol Invictus.
...
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Aside from fueling, how would a future space station generate revenue and provide value to both the stationers and visitors?
You have an independent space station, it's in a place that is convenient as a jump point for space ships, so it gets visited. What makes a station like that valuable other than the obvious fuel and R&...
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Is there a way a society could produce tanks as cheaply as cars?
In a book I am writing, one of the countries I am writing about has a militarized society, but also a strong sense of universal weapon ownership, to the point that more people in the society have ...
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Impacts of matricentric reproductive laws [closed]
My world is a matricentric America that holds men legally responsible for unplanned pregnancies. Roughly, the idea is that if an unplanned pregnancy occurs and the woman does not get an abortion, the ...
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In an Urban Fantasy Setting, Why Would a Magical Courier Be Hired Over Traditional Couriers? [closed]
The premise is that there's a guild of couriers that use a dangerous parallel spirit world for shortcuts through mortal space to deliver packages at great speed.
Despite the advantage of speed, why ...
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I'm a billionaire, how would I set up a incorruptible communist society? [closed]
I'm a billionaire with unlimited funds/political influence. It is my belief that communism has always failed because in the real world true communism has never been tested, rather every time it's been ...
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Energy itself as a form of currency [duplicate]
I have pondered a setting/society where people have access to advanced technology (for one example, food replicators), but either have to work to earn or trade to obtain the power needed to operate it....
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What could be the main source of national income for a small nation made up of small islands, with a main workforce for that income be exploited group
Background:
Story Background:
Exploited people are leaving their situation, resulting in a lack of work being done by that group. The exploited group (once rested and feeling restored) take advantage ...
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