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cost of life

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Quincey Forder Quincey Forder's picture
cost of life
something my players and I wonder about what is the cost of life, exactly? in the sense of, what's the worth of credit. how much does the most mundane item or service cost? how much does the bus from residential suburbs to downtown New Petesburg? how much does it cost to download the new album by Savoy from MeshTunes? the weekly fee for the Weight Watcher compliant bread template's licence? the little things that are bellow the scope of heroic people like the player characters.
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TBRMInsanity TBRMInsanity's picture
Re: cost of life
It would change from hab to hab but in most RPGs I tend to use one of two methods to pay for "stuff". If it is something small and doesn't really impact a character's wealth (like taking public transportation) then I don't have the PC pay for it. If you are buying something that is more substantial (like buying a fancy meal) then I keep it under 100 credits.
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Quincey Forder Quincey Forder's picture
Re: cost of life
But what would be the exchange rate between the USD and the credit? or the Sterling Pound and the credit? Given the small amound of credit one receives, I would go with the same exchange rate as the Wizarding World's Gaelon from HP One credit (Gaelon) for ten Pounds (20 Euros, 30 USD)
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Decivre Decivre's picture
Re: cost of life
Quincey Forder wrote:
But what would be the exchange rate between the USD and the credit? or the Sterling Pound and the credit? Given the small amound of credit one receives, I would go with the same exchange rate as the Wizarding World's Gaelon from HP One credit (Gaelon) for ten Pounds (20 Euros, 30 USD)
To try to put in context the value of coinage from two different periods of time is very difficult. Try asking historians what the exchange rate between USD and the Spanish gold doubloon is, and you'll get a different answer from all of them. The problem is that goods and services vary in value when you shift time periods. For instance, just comparing now to the 1950s, it is comparatively more expensive to buy gas, and cheaper to buy pre-cooked food. Electronic devices have taken a huge drop in value, but wooden furniture has gone up in value. It's hard to place a direct attachment comparative to the value of the dollar in the context of far older currencies as well; just 300 years prior, firearms and staple foods were very cheap, while foods like beef were considered extravagant products only purchased by the very wealthy (and its value dropped dramatically over the course of maybe half-a-century). This will especially be a problem in the context of Eclipse Phase. Common clothes and food are likely to be anywhere from ridiculously cheap to completely free (they are distributed in nanofab vending machines), while a 1-room apartment on a popular habitat might cost the same amount of credits as a two-story home in USD today. Computers are insignificant in cost, while classic furniture has a huge boost in value. All this might be contextually different from someplace like the Jovian Republic, where common clothes and food aren't nanofabricated, and therefore cost much more.
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TBRMInsanity TBRMInsanity's picture
Re: cost of life
The game does provide (pg 296) a relative impact cost of every item in the game (as it relates to society at that time). The range of costs go from trivial (ie why bother doing the accounting if the character wants this item) to Expensive (ie you better have a good reason and the capital/rep to get this item). The average cost is in credits and it looks like trivial items are around 50 credits which to me would say they cost in the $0.50 range (ie pocket change).
Jovian Motto: Your mind is original. Preserve it. Your body is a temple. Maintain it. Immortality is an illusion. Forget it.
Arenamontanus Arenamontanus's picture
Re: cost of life
I agree with previous posts. As a rough rule of thumb, you could assume that "dumb objects" that have no historical value have become (at least) an order of magnitude cheaper, while objects with historical value are at least an order of magnitude more expensive (few survived the fall). Basic services have also become an order of magnitude cheaper (lots of AI). Energy has become cheaper. So my "trick" would be to compare the current price to the average income and multiply/divide it by 10 or 100, to get a sense of how expensive it is. As a rough estimate, that bus trip would cost the equivalent of a cent or penny. Similarly for standard meals - but the restaurant meal made by a real cook will be about as pricey relative to the average wage as today. Getting a new desk or dumb clothes is also at least ten times as cheap, perhaps even more so. Getting a real Earth plywood desk, well that takes at least a month of salary (and a real oak desk, years of salary). The initial 5000 credits might help calibrate. According to this the average brit has £2,205 in savings. The median income is £16,400. So savings are slightly above 10% of the income. Now, if the EP situation is similar, then the median income would be 50,000 credits per year. Of course, savings rates might change. Given the precarious situation, rapid economic growth etc the interest rate could be pretty high.
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TBRMInsanity TBRMInsanity's picture
Re: cost of life
Arenamontanus wrote:
The initial 5000 credits might help calibrate. According to this the average brit has £2,205 in savings. The median income is £16,400. So savings are slightly above 10% of the income. Now, if the EP situation is similar, then the median income would be 50,000 credits per year. Of course, savings rates might change. Given the precarious situation, rapid economic growth etc the interest rate could be pretty high.
$50,000 is on par for the average North American (Americans and Canadians). I guess you could put the credit at par with the dollar (though putting it on par with the cent seems more appropriate.
Jovian Motto: Your mind is original. Preserve it. Your body is a temple. Maintain it. Immortality is an illusion. Forget it.