 December 28, 2011 - 4:25pm | Fantastic new technology will change the future of home materials. How could we apply this to the Star Frontiers universe? How would it affect supply availability in a game? View my profile for a list of articles I have written, am writing, will write. "It's yo' mama!" —Wicket W. Warrick, Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi "That guy's wise." —Logray, Star Wars Ep.VI: Return of the Jedi Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? - Felicia Day (The Guild) |
 January 8, 2012 - 6:21pm | @ Rattraveller: excellent eval of the situation. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
January 9, 2012 - 1:27pm | Not to contradict once again, but I've been at the heart of the situation for a while now. The problem isn't globalization of the kind you're talking about (You're actually misunderstanding what is meant by "globalization". Think about it. Globalization of the kind you're referring to is no different than a whole country relying upon the same goods and services. It's just on a larger scale). What globalizatoin really means is the world's dependence upon the fractional reserve debt money system that has taken over. Other major issues that have brought about this depression include the forced foreclosures within the housing market by the banks, the economic bubble produced by the oil and gas companies, the Ponzi scheme of financial institutions in the stock market, and disproportionate salaries paid to corporate figureheads that should be going to the working classes, resulting in greater and greater amounts of money being funneled off the streets and into the pockets of lazy good-for-nothing liars who don't deserve their money, while the rest of the people have less share of the money under skyrocketing prices. All of this has been permitted because of banks and corporations being able to buy politicians through unchecked campaign donations paid for with stock options in the Ponzi schemes, because money is declared free speech and corporations are protected as "persons". The politicians are even creating bills like SOPA just to extort money from corporations like the more principled tech market who don't need to bribe politicians and who make their money on free speech. In simpler terms, the problem is the free market economy. What "free" means in that term is "deregulated" or "unregulated". This produces a situation in which the banks and corporations are permitted to run the common people over unchecked. They do what they want, when they want. The philosophy for the free marke economy is that the market and corporate practices will regulate themselves and the kinks will iron themselves out. This ignores the fact that the law requires that the corporations take every opportunity to increase their profits. If they don't increase their profits, the government shuts them down. Therefore, the only concern of the corporations is the bottom line, and they'll feed that bottom line any way they can. As long as the bottom line is the bottom line, an unchecked market means a system ruled by tyrannical corporaions who will bleed the world dry just to stay afloat. By the way, this is the fifth and worst time the U.S. has suffered a depression connected directly to a fractional reserve debt system. View my profile for a list of articles I have written, am writing, will write. "It's yo' mama!" —Wicket W. Warrick, Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi "That guy's wise." —Logray, Star Wars Ep.VI: Return of the Jedi Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? - Felicia Day (The Guild) |
 January 9, 2012 - 1:27pm | @rat +1 I like the frontier worlds dependant on each other, where one planet/system produces X to be shipped other places while having the need for Y. That's how I've written my BBSF setting and an upcoming Trade article for SFman. Does this economy work? Am I wrong in this thinking? |
 January 16, 2012 - 12:01am | jumping on the side topic a bit late - I would point out that it is said "The Federation" has no use for monetary gains, and that officers of Star-fleet are given all they need, and High-officials can have all of their wants met, such that even most citizens have no desire for monetary gains. That "such pursuits have been virtually eliminated." ... Yes, a depression in the frontier could play havoc with the most familiar starports of the most specialized worlds... but I would not assume that there is no resilience in the frontier, nor that anything other than the starports are in such a close economic ecosystem. I assume that the major mega-cities around the starports of civilized worlds will have a sprawl of diverse economy around them, though perhaps not very densely populated sprawl. I would not take a globally pervasive "market specialization" for any colony larger than an outpost lightly... larger populations just do not support such economics, as any major or port city of a colony world grows it will likely attract many homesteaders, and homesteaders will gather into villages, villages to estates... and comes mid-level populations, where estates become baronies, and barronies form around central cities and ports, then baronies group into territories... and then on to high-populations, where territories become nations, and nations form planetary governments, and beyond... mind that even so, there is still LOTS of room for a wilderness frontier on a planet with a high population... 7-14 billion people, is a lot of people, but a lot of people could still fit into the smallest continent comfortably - especially with; robot servants, daily trips to the moon, and entire eco-hab apartment complexes built 40... 80... 120 stories high with it's own farms&markets built in - and thus leave a lot of untouched wilderness in the rest of the world... 28 billion people could just as easily split up into 14 separate "New Chicago" enclosed mega-cities each the size of Paraguay of ~2 billion people with less density than any major cities of the early 2000's, and still this would not be using but a fraction of the planet, leaving the rest of the wilderness to brave and/or foolish homesteaders, roving packs of nomads, and uncivilized bandits... and still there is room for untouched virgin land out there that even the locals have not tread on. ...oh wait... economics, not populations... but yeah it matters, a Frontier Spirit spreads out, and diversifies the economy of populated worlds, outposts might be weak in a depression, and so would colonies that rely on bio-elements from a natural biosphere, but most major worlds are likely stable enough to shake it off and rebound... remember the blue plague, autonomy has likely become a survival necessity in the minds of many ever since. Oh humans!!  We discover a galactic community filled with multiple species of aliens, and the first thing we think about is "how can we have sex with them?".~ anymoose, somewhere on the net... so... if you square a square it becomes a cube... if you square a cube does it become an octoid? |
