Questions tagged [economy]
For questions regarding wealth, trade, or financial concepts.
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Speedrunning medicinal science
Many believe that being incredibly rich equals to being god on earth and in artificial situations, yes it would make sense... except it never happened.
All Kings and Queens got fooled, betrayed, ...
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One day, China suddenly stops all exports. What happens to the world economy?
I am more curious about the immediate effects on local and global socio-economics rather than the likelihood of the rest of the world declaring war on China or were the other countries would get their ...
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Neural wireless link: Buy your personal hive mind for only 399!
Tired of having to sleep? Tired of having to die? Tired of having to age? Tired of being weak? Tired of being short? Tired of being male or female? Tired of being human? Tired of being made of flesh?
...
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Mining, Scavenging and Recycling in an artificial world
Billions of years ago, an extremely advanced civilization created an artificial world. Whether it is a ringworld, a shellworld, or something more isn't really relevant. This world's crust has a depth ...
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What are the most important factors that determine the balance of power between kings and nobles and merchants?
I am writing a fantasy world with post-medieval technology. Instead of just standard feudalism, I want mercantilism or capitalism to play at least some role in the power dynamics.
I am thinking about ...
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Interstellar commerce: why would planets be valuable?
The Background:
I am going to be asking a series of questions that will be relevant to forming some sort of a picture of human space commerce.
Let's say that Earth-based human civilizations have ...
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How can I keep my kingdom intact when the price of gold suddenly drops?
I am Queen Aerith the 3rd of Alagaesia. I rule a large and powerful nation in a time period technologically equivalent to the 17th century or so. Most of my world map is known, and cross-ocean trade ...
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How could medieval nobles standing improve by having someone from 2021 as an accountant?
I remember reading in another question about Time Travel here on the forum, with the subject of your being stuck in medieval time.
That if you where lucky, you could have a good life serving your ...
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Economic and geopolitical effects of building a space elevator?
Most interested in effects during the first <75 years.
Things to consider:
What type of organization is building the space elevator?
How is the service sold/rented?
What is its maintenance/...
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How can I pivot my goon creation factory to a subscription based model?
I am a rising entrepreneur who has plans of cornering a lucrative niche market for myself. Whether you are a rising super villian in battle with heroes, or a criminal mastermind bent on taking over ...
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Assuming that the environment of Earth and Mars are similar, is there possible trading between Earth and Mars in current technology?
Let's assume that Mars has an atmosphere, oceans, plants, and animals, even there is some native civilization like John Carter.
Is there any possible trading between Earth and Mars?
I noticed that ...
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How do I fix the unit of money/coins? [closed]
Ok so here's the thing, how is the the value of a coin and the value of items you buy with it decided?
After production is enough to fill the needs of the population, item to item trade comes to an ...
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Scenario for creating a world akin to cyberpunk
I was wondering if the debt of major developed countries (especially the USA) were to grow too high (possibly with interest rates above GDP as this is the current view of what it takes to go backrupt) ...
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Would glass bullets be feasible in a hypothetical world?
Enter the world of hypothetical-ness:
Imagine a world where we have used almost all of our copper, lead, and iron supplies and deposits. The amount that we still do have is not enough to make a lot of ...
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How fast could we build a Dyson Swarm?
I'm in a rush to colonize the Solar System. Thankfully, the latest Space Race, a commercial one between SpaceX, Blue Origin, Rocket Lab and other less known market entrants, is set to dramatically ...
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How can I mass produce steel without coal?
So, Suppose for a moment that there is a society on the verge of an industrial revolution.
They live on a super-continent. The continent has a circumference of around 40,000 kilometers (If I recall ...
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What will it take to get 1,000,000 people living in space habitats?
Sure, land is expensive here in downtown Metropolis, but lots of cheap land to build on even a few dozen miles out, never mind in the backwoods, or in flyover agricultural lands that rich, self-...
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How can a banker successfully (and safely) lend money to an autocrat?
I'm the owner of a large bank in Europe, with vast resources at my disposal. I would like to increase my wealth by lending it out at interest.
The ruler of the country I'm based in has his own wishes:...
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What happens if King Midas produces gold en-masse
Suppose King Midas learns to turn off his power to turn things into gold, and passes on that ability to his children.
A few centuries later, King Midas has thousands of descendants, all of whom can ...
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How do I determine which areas of my empire would be richest and poorest? [closed]
In my book series, the Aurean Empire spans an entire Earth-sized world called Aurea (however, all of the landmass is on the southern hemisphere, so only that part is inhabited). Overall, the planet's ...
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How accurate was/ could minting be in the early middle ages regarding to the shape of the coin (circular)?
I am having trouble finding information on this and I lack the knowledge to know how feasible or not this would be.
I'd like to know how perfectly round coins could be made in the early middle ages. ...
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How would telepathy among kinsmen effect preindustrial societies? [closed]
So if people from the same family can communicate telepathically over long distances, how would that effect postindustrial societies? Ie rome, medieval times or even early modern times
The way it ...
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How can a for-profit prison enterprise cut costs while also maximizing growth potential?
I, Jefferson Bezonius, run the largest e-commerce business which have penetrated markets in various nations, making me one of the wealthiest men in the world. My company, Amazo, provides a platform in ...
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Time traveling Bitcoin buying
One of the most common answer tropes to the "start-your-life-over-at-x-age-with-all-your-current-memories"-question is people saying that they'd buy Bitcoin or invest in Stock XYZ that they ...
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How would stone age settlements interact with, and be influenced by closely neighbouring high-tech civilisation?
I've tried to find real world examples where something like Maasai Tribes, or groups of a similar life style, that live more or less alongside a high-tech civilisation, but I haven't been able to. ...
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Can gold destroy the economy?
If someone successfully located and mined all the remaining unmined gold on Earth and released it into the global economy within one day how bad would the inflation be? If the inflation isn't much ...
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Would it be possible to mine the metallic hydrogen from jupiter with our current technology? [duplicate]
Simply put, metallic hydrogen is obtained at absurd atmospheric pressures, becoming a stable liquid with very interesting properties. As a super conductor or simply the most efficient fuel that ...
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Despite proliferation of graphene, why is gold still so expensive in the future?
Right now I can think of 3 important factors determining the trading value of gold and why is it so expensive:
Factor 1 is longevity; this element rarely if ever reacts with anything, particularly ...
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Space colonization becoming economically recoverable
One of the big problems by manned space exploration and colonization, that it's insanely expensive. Building a colony on other celestial bodies - since it's impractical to bring back the acquired ...
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What would make sailing difficult?
I'm looking to write a story where the world is a lot of islands separated by rather small water expanses (about the width of the Mediterranean or maybe that and a half) and I am struggling to find a ...
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How long and how much money would it take to rebuild a war torn domain/city in a late Medieval esque society (+ levitation magic)?
This is research for a book I'm writing which is set in a world with the technology level and feudal system of the late medieval period. The only exception is that there is magic and a non-human race ...
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Slave species that wants to be ruled over [closed]
Let's say aliens come to Earth, then leave us a slave species that only wants to serve other beings and would not like to be freed. They are the same shape but much stronger and have the same ...
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How much would take and cost to construct a building/tower that reaches space? (with todays technology) [duplicate]
I am aware that there is a concept called "space elevator" that would be a much cheaper and more efficient option of reaching space with a construction (even though we don't have the ...
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What MacGuffin can convince a "bronzish" age city state with no stakes on a war to go to war [closed]
First of all, not sure if it's a worldbuilding question but I've read some of the questions here and on RPG stack exchange and my question seemed more fit for this stack exchange. Hope I'm right.
I'm ...
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What would an immortal-run American bank have to do to secretly maintain bank accounts for immortal customers?
A common concern with immortal fictional characters like vampires and the like is the frequency with which they'd have to change their identities and move around in order to avoid people noticing how ...
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How would society that embraces only non-answer still prosper? [closed]
Set in the modern day society a bill was passed in the parliment just recently to force all its people to only use non-answer for all questions including daily conversation as part of the Personal ...
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What kind of a tax system would encourage well-off to have many children?
This question is inspired by the Would high fertility rate among the rich crowd out commoners? . The tax rate presented doesn't seem to encourage the desired behavior.
The starting assumptions are:
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Given early 1800's level technology, is it feasible to extract salt and fresh water from the ocean?
Suppose the setting is a small coastal island with only three towns in it. (I imagine it's roughly the size of the Isle of Man, perhaps a little bit bigger.) Technology level is roughly around the ...
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Why is monster index still going strong?
An index is a measure of how a stock market is performing. Even the monsters know how to build up their portfolio.
When a kill is secured -- say a human being -- or a carcass is recovered, they are ...
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Wargs: Where would they be economically significant if they existed on Earth?
Using the Tolkien depiction of Wargs (horse-sized and fairly intelligent large lupines that can be domesticated), where would they likely find an economic niche as livestock or work animals? I would ...
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If time-travellers always arrive naked how and what would they trade?
In the Terminator movies, time travellers arrive naked and then steal clothes and other items from the locals.
In my society this is also true. However they can carry some things internally in the ...
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What are various ways to gain influence over a nation primarily using economics?
This is set in a traditional Isekai world with magic, medieval technology, and a feudal system. The protagonist wants to reshape a country to match his values, basically making the nation "good&...
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How would a group of extra-terrestrial infiltrators go about destroying a free market economy [closed]
Let's say that a small group (around 20 or so) of well-equipped, highly intelligent ETs have secretly made their way on to Earth. They have all the knowledge they need of our various languages and ...
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Modern trading card game viable in late medieval / renaissance times?
A tad bit late perhaps, but the creation of Gwent in The Witcher 3 PC RPG game has got me thinking: would a modern trading card game(hereafter referred to as TCG) like Magic: The Gathering be able to ...
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Get rich quick with time travel! [closed]
The Rewinders are back!
Background
An almost-comprehensive description of the Rewind mechanic can be found in this question, and an extensive case study can be found in my self-answer to the same. ...
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What kind of companies and fronts would a humanitarian conspiracy have?
A humanitarian AI known as URAED has set up a one-AI infrastructure for supporting a conspiracy. This conspiracy being the intrusion, resource extraction, and deployment of humanitarian resources and ...
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How plausible is this form of government; where you get votes depending on the amount of income tax paid
There are a few other similar questions. The answers mostly point out downfalls as to why this wouldn't work. In this question I try to address these downfalls, hoping to patch (not necessarily ...
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Economic structure for semi-post-scarcity society
Suppose in the far future, after humanity has acquired FTL travel and communication (and other assorted technologies) from more advanced alien species in the universe, a small portion of a specific ...
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Would a National Army of mercenaries be a feasible idea?
Would it be practical for a small, largely isolated country to have a drafted army to be hired out to other countries as guards for caravans or a policing force? The soldiers would all serve around 4 ...
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In the modern era, how could I have a very bad recession comparable to the Great Depression?
In my world (modern day Earth, but at a higher technology level with national AI systems being commonplace across the world, cybernetics limbs being an option, and autonomous weapon systems being ...
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