What is the economic model of Yamatai?

[mizunoyoroko]

The question is slightly misleading unfortunately, but it's based off of a discussion that occurred in IRC one night, and while doing my econ homework I had a burst of inspiration.

So, this discussion basically involved talking about how Yamatai has no scarcity. Unlimited supply, unlimited capability to produce. The point was brought up that if this were the case, prices of things would skyrocket to unreasonable levels as it is easy to make things, and people desire profit. It got me wondering, why exactly are prices not absurdly high, and inflation to boot?

I'm not too much of a thinking man, so bear with me as I try.

In a word: Control.

Either the Ketsurui, PANTHEON (most likely), or some other group maintains a constant vigil on the economy and controls the amount of money that exists in the system (KS).

I suggest PANTHEON because it would be able to track, detect, and constantly correct the minor details on a personal level as they occured. For instance, if PANTHEON detected consumer demand in an area dropping it might lower prices in that area to compensate while raising prices wherever the demand went. Either way, prices are controlled externally. The system could go so far as to control prices on even a store by store basis.

"Now that's all well and fine." You say, "But what about pay?" simple, also PANTHEON controlled. PANTHEON decides a value based off of demand, effort required, and other various facets and that is what a job pays you.

"So why isn't the military paid the most as they have high value?"

Simple, not everyone is in the military. Though their value is high, there is a set amount of KS in the system, which can not exceed a certain point. People must be paid, furthermore, this complex system still requires them to pay for their own cost of living. Their payment must allow them to survive on their own, in the military most of the cost of living is provided vis a vis the military.

This balances out the equation by allowing for civilians to maintain a higher pay due to necessity. Yes some military ranks pay higher than what most civilians earn, that is to be expected as those ranks are usually higher and thus a higher value.

All in all though, this system would be extremely rigidly controlled, almost needing to use the PANTHEON itself to maintain the appearance of a standard supply and demand market. As for the military itself, well, it is capable of producing its own goods via nodal so it sits precariously on the edge.

Summary:
Limited amount of money. Prices and wages are controlled. Through that, demand is controlled as well.

One thing that occurred to me as I wrote this was 'what incentive would there be to own a store?'. There are two answers for this question really, but both are dependent upon different circumstances:

1.) You are not aware of the system existing. Plain and simple. The market looks and feels like a standard Free Trade Market.

2.) You are aware, but are given leeway on your prices.

3.) You are aware but can control to a certain extent the goods you sell (and possibly the prices of them as well).

edit: Shortly after posting I again had a burst of inspiration, so without further ado:

4.) You are unaware. Since the supplier is ultimately the YSE there is no need for you to be aware. They simply raise the cost for you as the store owner and you in turn to your clients. You run your business as you would in a free market economy. Different YSE suppliers could exist in order to provide a 'cheaper' alternative or some 'competition' but in the end it is all controlled. If this is the case most likely the suppliers aren't publicly related to the YSE and seem like any other business.

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Regardless, that is my theorized economic model of Yamatai. Feel free to poke holes in it, as I love discussion. If you know what the actual economic model is, feel free to share it as well as possibly discuss the way it handles the lack of scarcity in the market economy.

(Primer: Scarcity = The condition in which wants are forever greater than the available supply of time, goods, and resources) As far as I'm aware, it takes no real resources to create goods. (I mean it takes some, but they are minor (aka Hydrogen or Aether)).

 

[Exhack]

Yamatai is a culture of expansion. It must continuously seize new systems and populate them with new Nekos to increase the perceived need for goods. In essence, having infinite supply requires you to create real or imagine demand for your goods, and without it, your economy grinds to a halt. Therefore, they need new consumers and enterprises which consume capital to provide to them. Otherwise, people will end up only buying what they need to live.

Of course, you could theoretically just buy an aether reactor and matter conversion system once, and never have to worry about it ever again with the exception of having to buy replacement components.

But on the other hand, Yamatai doesn't even need money to run itself. It can increase or lower the value of its currency on a whim and produce anything it theoretically needs for any purpose in a matter of seconds. So, the only purpose of the runaway economic model is simply to induce the perception that Yamatai actually HAS an economic model that doesn't involve nigh total governmental control.

 

[Strangelove]

Firstly we can assume Yamatai is not expanding production as fast as physically possible, otherwise the entire galaxy would have been consumed by now. This can probably attributed to direction of production to war efforts, luxury goods, and of course the inherent waste in any human(oid)-centric organization. Thus production is not infinite.

Second, and perhaps more importantly, is the nature of war. The YSE are one of the known galaxy's worst warmongers. They have inflicted and have undergone the destruction of more ships than any other race that I am aware of. This could be used as a mechanism of scarcity.

The essential act of war is destruction, not necessarily of human lives, but of the products of human labour. War is a way of shattering to pieces, or pouring into the stratosphere, or sinking in the depths of the sea, materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable, and hence, in the long run, too intelligent. Even when weapons of war are not actually destroyed, their manufacture is still a convenient way of expending labour power without producing anything that can be consumed.

A Floating Fortress, for example, has locked up in it the labour that would build several hundred cargo-ships. Ultimately it is scrapped as obsolete, never having brought any material benefit to anybody, and with further enormous labours another Floating Fortress is built. In principle the war effort is always so planned as to eat up any surplus that might exist after meeting the bare needs of the population.

While Yamatai probably doesn't follow the above quote word for word, they would benefit from a similar system -- and not necessarily in a purely economic sense. Especially since infinite production means that any small group could raise their own empire, thus threatening their power monopoly.

...And at the same time the consciousness of being at war, and therefore in danger, makes the handing-over of all power to a small caste seem the natural, unavoidable condition of survival.

 

[mizunoyoroko]

Yamatai is a culture of expansion. It must continuously seize new systems and populate them with new Nekos to increase the perceived need for goods. In essence, having infinite supply requires you to create real or imagine demand for your goods, and without it, your economy grinds to a halt. Therefore, they need new consumers and enterprises which consume capital to provide to them. Otherwise, people will end up only buying what they need to live.

Naturally. You would need to have someone or something monitor it and affect the supplies available in order to affect demand. Watch how popular something is and react based on that. All in all I think that this would be an almost Orwellian society in terms of the amount of control. No, I doubt there would be thought police, but the media would be heavily regulated I'm sure. All this so that you could in fact affect the supply and demand. Since you control the output, as long as they can't prove the truth, whatever you say is what happens.

Of course, you could theoretically just buy an aether reactor and matter conversion system once, and never have to worry about it ever again with the exception of having to buy replacement components.

That's actually a good point, you could theoretically by the generator. I'm pretty sure that the tech to create whatever you want is quite regulated. I know there is 1 product that creates things for nothing from aether available to the civilian market (It's a candy dispenser if I recall correctly) but if the above model is in effect then there wouldn't be much else available. After all, you would lose control.