Hello forum,
I was wondering about the economics of the Inner System, and on what the credit is indexing?
Because money IRL was indexed on gold, and then on dollar, but I think gold doesn't mean much in EP, and dollar disappear.
Thank you ;)
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Credit Indexation
Mon, 2012-03-26 07:31
#1
LeZero
Credit Indexation
Mon, 2012-03-26 07:50
#2
Xagroth
Re: Credit Indexation
Today's economies are not based only on gold and other precious metals. Works of art are also incorporated to that backing.
This being said, how do you back the value of money in a post-scarcity economy? Simple, you don't. There is a reason for the credits working in the sunward, but not in rimward: sunward is not 100% post-scarcity, and the credits are "backed" by the services offered by the hypercorps (which are the ones emitting the money). This also means that the currency can be considered as absolutely stable: there won't be value variations between, for example, Luna's credits and Mars', or Cognite's and Solaris'.
So, essentially, sunward (or "classic economies") back their credits with the list of products and services you can acquire with them, instead of with more classical means. If you want to go for the extreme, then you can say that they use the energy and materials required for any given product, plus the time of use of the Cornucopia Machines.
Rimward, however, everybody who wants it can have its own Cornucopia Machine, so it's just a matter of making your own blueprints (or asking for them) and then finding the materials yourself.
Mon, 2012-03-26 07:56
#3
LeZero
Re: Credit Indexation
Thank you! It's more clear. Then, there's is no inflation, or something else like this?
Mon, 2012-03-26 09:49
#4
Arenamontanus
Re: Credit Indexation
Inflation and deflation is a change in the value of money. I suspect that as the inner system economy changes, there are changes in the value of money since productivity changes. Most likely the credit is also actually a composite currency linked to the values of the corporate scrips (but the complexity is hidden from you by your Muse).
There was a mention somewhere that the Titanian krona was backed by qubits. This *sounds* cool, but I suspect that from an economic standpoint it can be pretty unstable: the more qubit factories anyone builds, the weaker the krona would become.
The real fun starts when you begin to think about what backs reputations...
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Mon, 2012-03-26 13:31
#5
NewAgeOfPower
Re: Credit Indexation
Quibit manufacturing sounds more resource and energy intensive than antimatter manufacture... given this, I suspect the Titanian Kroner is likely to be very stable.
—
As mind to body, so soul to spirit.
As death to the mortal man, so failure to the immortal.
Such is the price of all ambition.
Mon, 2012-03-26 14:28
#6
Arenamontanus
Re: Credit Indexation
It is not energy intensive. Remember, we are making qubits by the gross today. It is easy if you have the right equipment. The hard part is to capture them without breaking them, which likely requires some precision nanotechnology.
Meanwhile antimatter requires vast amounts of energy. Remember that every Joule coming out of the antimatter spacecraft or warhead was put in there (plus enormous losses!) as electricity in the original plant. You cannot make it energy-cheap.
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Tue, 2012-03-27 01:23
#7
NewAgeOfPower
Re: Credit Indexation
Sorry, I should have been more clear: Probably involves near-absolute zero storage and handling systems. Probably is incredibly slow process, with a 99.99% (or more) of manufactured quibits breaking before being placed into stable storage.
Since it appears using individual quibits to transmit data is impossible, if FTL data transmission is even possible at all, this process is further made more complex by the need to make multiple quibits for each bit of data.
Such factories may require rare elements to produce as well.... Do you see what I'm trying to say?
—
As mind to body, so soul to spirit.
As death to the mortal man, so failure to the immortal.
Such is the price of all ambition.
Tue, 2012-03-27 03:46
#8
Arenamontanus
Re: Credit Indexation
Yes. It is just that qubits are like Swiss watches or diamond cutting, rather than the uranium or oil mining of antimatter.
Here is a picture of the beamsplitter that makes entangled photons in a real quantum crypto system:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/arenamontanus/3472668697/
Not too dramatic. And the equipment to make entangled qubits in diamonds over here also fits on a lab bench. But I can imagine the "packaging" of qubits to be a vast and cold operation.
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Tue, 2012-03-27 04:50
#9
Xagroth
Re: Credit Indexation
I'd use morphs as backing for the Krona... seems much more interesting, considering they are trying to run a policy of "one ego, one morph" ^^