B9 Money (Patreon)

In this next episode of Executioner's Gambit, Tori has finished interviewing some very rich geroo and is left to wonder why.

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Shaking her head in disbelief, Tori wandered slowly around the pristinely clean Deck 1. Gateships are spheres, so the top-most and bottom-most decks were the smallest. That said, these decks still weren’t “small”. Plenty of normal-sized apartments could have lined each corridor. But instead, the entire deck had been carved up into four palatial estates.

Speaking more to herself, she swore, “How can anyone be this rich? It’s obscene.”

“It’s a quirk,” said Holly as he looked around.

“A quirk?”

“Uh-huh. After we found that shard in Subcommander Kimoa’s air vent, I did a little reading on gateship economics.”

Tori scowled. Since dedicating herself to solving murders, she’d researched plenty of subjects that she wouldn’t normally read. But economics sounded even drier than forensics. “Sounds riveting.”

“Yeah, it was a snore-fest,” Holly admitted with a grin, “but there was one bit I found interesting: the open economy found on gateships leads to a ‘pooling’ of wealth in the paws of a fortunate few.”

Tori blinked. She stared at the lanky administrator for a moment and then blinked again. “Holly, I understood every word you just said, and yet, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

He laughed silently, his ears pulling way back. “Well, think of it this way… Pretend that you were the only person aboard the ship. Then, the ship’s economy would have two entities: you and the company,” he explained. “The company pays you a salary, and you pay that money back to the company for rent, utilities, and food.”

Tori shrugged. If there was only a single person aboard the ship, then why even have money? “That sounds fairly pointless.”

“Bear with me, Tori,” he said, batting away her snark. “If you want something but can’t afford it—a new couch, perhaps—you’ll have to wait until payday or save up to get it.”

She shrugged. “Sure.”

“In a closed economy, there’s not much difference between you and the company.”

Tori scowled, not understanding the comparison. To her, it seemed like the two had nothing in common. She said, “Except that they make all the rules.”

“I meant economically, Tori.” He explained, “When you pay the company rent, that’s basically their payday. They spend their money buying your labor. Same as you, but just reversed.”

Her muzzle wrinkled in an unconscious snarl. “That’s weird, but sure, I guess I can imagine that.”

“And if the company wants to buy something—like perhaps giving you a bonus because you’re doing such a great job—they have to have the credits to do so, just like you saving up for a couch.”

Tori shook her head. “I can’t imagine the company running out of credits.”

“They can’t,” said Holly, “because the gateship economy isn’t a closed system. It’s an open economy.”

She nodded at first, but soon she shook her head. “How’s that different?”

Holly smiled. “In an open economy, the company doesn’t exist. As the only person aboard the ship, you’d be the only entity in the economy.”

She was glad she hadn’t tried reading this book on economics. “You lost me again, Holly.”

“Suppose it’s payday,” he said. “Instead of the company giving you some of its money to pay your salary, the company creates some credits for your paycheck.”

She stared at him a long moment. “Okay…”

“And when you pay your rent or utilities or buy food, the company doesn’t keep that money you give it,” said Holly. “It just deletes the credits when you hand them over.”

Now, it was starting to make sense! She completed for him, “And so the company can never run out of credits because they can always make more?”

“Right!” cheered the administrator, smiling wide. “And what if the company paid you a little too much each week?”

She blinked again. “Too much?”

“Yeah, what if your income was a little higher than your bills?” he asked. “What would you do?”

This didn’t sound like a problem at all. She offered, “I guess I’d save it?”

“Of course! But this happens every week, and so your savings keeps growing. You buy a nicer couch, buy a nicer bed, and so on, but eventually, you run out of things to spend it on.” Holly grinned. “You have everything you want, so you just keep saving the excess each week.”

Tori studied him through squinted eyes. “And you say this like it’s a bad thing.”

“By the time you’re recycled, you’ve saved up a lot of money, so you leave it to your cubs. They’re in the same situation, and become even richer than you when they die.”

Tori’s lips formed an “O”, but she put no breath behind it. “And this is what you mean by ‘pooling’?”

He nodded excitedly, clearly glad that she understood. “Exactly, Tori. Since the company isn’t an entity with a budget of their own, your savings will either increase over time or decrease over time depending on whether they’re paying you too much or too little.”

She crossed her arms, taking a moment. “And if I wasn’t the only person on the ship?”

“Then, the same sort of thing still happens,” he explained. “The company pays some geroo too much and others too little. Credits pool in some families while other families find themselves constantly struggling.”

Although what he said seemed plausible, it still didn’t jive with what she knew to be true. “What about on Krakuntec?” asked Tori. “Is that an open economy?”

“No, Tori, planetary economies are almost always closed systems. A planetary government has money of its own, and needs to try and work within a budget.”

She pointed at his chest, triumphantly. “So, what are you saying? Money doesn’t pool on Krakuntec, and there’s no rich krakun and poor krakun?” Tori grinned wide, thinking about Daskatoma’s desperation to make ends meet. “Because I know that’s not true.”

Holly laughed and held up his palms in surrender. “Okay you got me there,” he admitted. “Yes, you’ll still have rich people and poor people in a closed economy, but that’s because of totally different reasons.”

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Reviewer's link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YOKZDP9ZDbEeYtv_fmocDm3gXUNuCy1E3dde0wBekaM/edit?usp=sharing

Thoughts?