Star Wars Roleplay: Chaos

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The Value of a Credit [SWRP: Chaos Edition]

What do you feel is the general purchasing power of the Galactic Standard Credit?


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Some time ago, someone(s) set up a sci-fi currency converter thingamajig to illustrate the value of real world currency as compared to the currency of science fiction universes. Star Wars was on there and, as it turns out, the Galactic Credit had the same equivalent purchasing power as the United States Dollar. The comparison they used was straight from movie canon- the prices off the menu at Dex's Diner. I'd hardly consider that a fitting thing to go from, but anything will give me closure at this point, so long as I have something to base myself out of.

Except for the fact that that movie took place over eight hundred years ago. In relation to our timeline, that is. That's a pretty wide gulf of time. The purchasing power of the United States dollar in 1940 is roughly equivalent to sixteen dollars today. That was just a paltry seventy-three years. Obviously, we're not going to calculate the exact worth of a Credit eight-hundred years after Dex's Diner ceased existing. I just want to feel what the general consensus is on the value of a Credit.

And don't say that this doesn't need to be discussed. Nothing about a fictional universe needs to be discussed.

I want to write a guide pertaining to the spending power of characters and whatnot so there's less lunacy running around when it comes to... Well, as a totally random and not at all related example: auctions. I'm hoping this will give me a little bit more insight on what the general community thinks.
 
Now this is an interesting discussion.

It's been a long time since I took history or economics, but I seem to remember that currency naturally inflates over time. Current credits would probably be worth their weight in TIE fighters compared to what they were like in the Clone Wars era.
 
I think normally I'd say inflated but post-plague reforming of governments, increase in production, new designs in weapons etc.... the problem was during the plague who was making credits? less credits less value... most likely localized planetary money.... as the galaxy rebuilds the brand new economy with a ton of blood pumping through the whole system suddenly money being legally minted again... oh yeah I'd say a bit high... but is just my thought less circulation more value
 

Ashin Varanin

Professional Enabler
Due to the Gulag Virus, the credit now has nothing in common with the old credit but the name, so its value absolutely can't be accurately modelled as a progression. It has to be determined independently.
 
I would say for sake of ease we should base it off of what it was worth to give a basis for everything.
The real issue becomes when people are competing and inflated bounty posts.

Really, I don't see a way to enforce it unless you do a total revamp of how credits are distributed. Auctions... well, they're just an awful, awful idea. :p It's one of those things that if you want to do an auction, it should probably be predetermined roughly who is going to win and just roleplay out the excitement of getting to that point to keep the credit count to a reasonable level.
 
Hmm, lets look at a few things shall we?

Every government is expanding(dominions) which means more folks to tax, which is what all governments do to be sustainable. Thus one could reason cash is raining in with the "manifest destiny" attitude that all Nations have on the map. Hell, one of our factions is based off a company expanding to take over. Thus you could reasonably justify that the value of a credit is booming, and in a war(or pre-war) economy one could reason the economy is doing incredibly well. All the expansion is spreading business, and when your markets expand so do your profits. If companies are booming, then their employees are seeing the perks of this, and then it gets into the market as they buy, and the government taxes most sales. So in a sense, you could say we're looking at a boon as everyone is racing to expand and everyone is reaping the benefits.

Also, war is a real boon for all businesses. If you also look at real world facts, there are several companies in the US(9 to be specific) that have more cash on hand(free spending money) than the actual government does. Everyone sees a figure, thinks it's outlandish when we are having to think economics on a galactic scale. I repeat, not a city, not a state, not a country, not a planet, or a system.


BUT A GALAXY!
 
^ that and add to it the high supply and demand of a galaxy with sudden access to markets and specialized replacement parts. The middle class would be in constant flux.... the question to me is really what happens after the expansions stop and markets finally stabilize...at that point in all likely hood the incredibly high demand would slack off .... production sent on turbo would be hurt... depression... until then though I'd say higher then usual and a lot of business going on
 
The purchasing power of a Galaxy spanning nation would be immense.

However, with that tax you have to look at the costs that each PLANET has. You've got to maintain it, you've got to maintain a standing military presence (of which costs alone are immense, just look at how big of an impact it has on the US government).

If you want to get super technical, you can start looking at all sorts of political factors that would determine the value of a credit and this could become immensely complicated when you start looking at socialism vs capitalism (Of which I always find amusing that battle between what players believe in RL vs RP). So the value of a credit really can't be determined without just making a vague judgement about the whole thing and just saying, "It is what it is."

So many variables...

SO MANY!
 
I've always viewed credits as having high purchasing power. My commonly used examples being that Han Solo's bounty was only 50,000 credits while a brand new X-wing - at the time - was 175,000 credits, which was seen as prohibitively expensive.
 
The military only fuels the fire... as every nation grows it gets a feeling of strengthening and pride in its own rights and abilities... IMHO I see SWRP as being in an almost pre WWI stage... nationalism be rampant.... its the start of something huge... constant expansion... muscles being flexed.... but once the whole map is claimed that doesn't go away... but slowly taxes will go down and the arms race continues... its use it or lose it time.... each new planet added into a faction has a ton of DEMAND... but eventually they've repaired all their equipment... patched the roads.... and bought ships

companies would still do good for a few more years with either wars/arm races but eventually the system would need to stabilize... or it hit a depression.... at the moment thought.. HUGE HIGH
 
@[member="Torjesgo"]
Torjesgo said:
The purchasing power of a Galaxy spanning nation would be immense. However, with that tax you have to look at the costs that each PLANET has. You've got to maintain it, you've got to maintain a standing military presence (of which costs alone are immense, just look at how big of an impact it has on the US government). If you want to get super technical, you can start looking at all sorts of political factors that would determine the value of a credit and this could become immensely complicated when you start looking at socialism vs capitalism (Of which I always find amusing that battle between what players believe in RL vs RP). So the value of a credit really can't be determined without just making a vague judgement about the whole thing and just saying, "It is what it is." So many variables... SO MANY!
  • One could reason that it would be a planetary tax that they all pay to their galactic power that rules them, as well as requirements for keeping a standing military up.
  • Tariffs cover a lot of this expense you're talking about, after all distribution in a galaxy would be a good means of making money for governments by increasing tariffs.
  • You also didn't mention that with the exception of the Republic, there is no standardized minimum wage, thus you could drive your profit margins higher.
 

Gilamar Skirata

The most important step is always the next one
Another thing to remember is that we just got out of a period of time where everyone was scrambling for the scraps of the galaxy while attempting to fix our separate economies, so I would think it would take a larger amount of credits to purchase things than before.
 
@[member="RodianHero"] Government expansion means new markets for companies to sell to while said governments tax them. In turn the planet gets a whole galactic power to trade with, thus sending wealth to them in turn.
 
@[member="Darron Wraith"]

You're starting to get into the complicated factors.
You've got to look down and determine each facet of the economy and whether it's a perfect competition, monopoly, oligopoly, etc. Then determine the supply/demand and that influence on price.

To continue playing politics, you can start looking at the dissent and standard of living that comes with each level of taxes that would be imposed. The issues that levels of tariffs would have on competition between companies across the galaxy and the ease at which citizens would have access to basic and lavish goods.

From there you can argue which factions would have the highest levels of dissent across worlds and those clamoring for political reform to fix the tax levels, to argue for additional government support (socialist idea), versus governments that try to run more on a capitalist system. Then you can break it down into a command vs free economy and....

VARIABLES. CAUSE AND EFFECT. *flail*
 
@[member="Darron Wraith"]

And since I didn't directly address it...

The lack of a minimum wage in a galaxy would be virtually damning to the government. The scale at which a revolt would happen in demand for reform would be immense. I do not believe that a galaxy spanning government could survive not having a minimum wage without spending equal or greater costs on a military presence to keep it from happening.
 
@[member="Torjesgo"] You misspelled chaos.

Strip a few variables away for those who don't study the market flow and look at it in a basic point of view.

  • More markets.
  • More tax income for governments
  • Wartime economy.
  • Galactic expansion.
  • Numbers that are hard to base for scale when our view on economics is limited to a world economic view at best.

The United States of America had over 150 Billion dollars on hand last year, with only 39 billion on hand this year. Expand, when we aren't even the richest nation on our planet, the numbers at that point escalate to pure ridiculousness.
 
@[member="Torjesgo"] you didn't account for the fact that some cultures view work as a duty to their country, again another variable. We have countries where sweat shops pay their employees pennies on the dollar for what they should make, and it's the only life they know.

Again, variables.
 
Yes, but look at our DEBT compared to what we have on hand. It's arguably chump change compared to how in the RED the US is. Haha

You mention only tax adding variables, you didn't mention anything about costs.
As one of my marketing professors says, "Statisticians are damn liars!"
:p
 

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