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| People complain about the economy all the time. Just what effect will the economy of your fantasy's society have on your characters? |
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Economics is one of those subjects in school that you love to skip. After all, what can be more boring than budgets and gross national products and all that schmoo? But the economy and the systems associated with them can actually have a huge influence on how your fantasy society structures itself. Economic systems try to answer three basic questions: what to produce? how to produce it? and for whom to produce for?
Economists have determined that there are three types of systems, with the fourth being a mixture of two of the three.
Traditional
The traditional system answers the three basic questions according to long held custom or tradition (i.e. “this is the way we’ve always done it”). It is strongly based on deep-set beliefs of the culture and labor is usually handed down generation to generation with little change. For example, if your father was a warrior, than you’d be a warrior. If he was a farmer, than you’d be a farmer, and so on.
Advantages
 You know what is expected of you
You know your place in the world
Family and community ties are very strong
Disadvantages
Change is discouraged, even punished in some cases.
Production methods are often inefficient resulting in few choices and quantity
Rarely will individuals have increased level of material well-being.
A good fictional example would be the Disney/Pixar movie A Bug’s Life. Flikk, the ant, belongs to a very traditional ant colony where he is constantly told to “be like everyone else” and that the colony has been picking grain the same way for a very long time. The leaders of the colony at the beginning of the movie have no patience with his ideas for more efficient harvesting and refuse to stand up to an oppressive group of grasshoppers because they’ve never known anything different.
Real world examples include the Inuit of North America, the Mbuti of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the Aborigines of Australia.
Command
Command is similar to traditional in that the individual has little influence over their basic economics. Government leaders—not tradition—control production and therefore make all the decisions about their use. Sometimes this government authority can be one person, a small group, or a group of central planners in an agency. They choose what to produce, how the resources are to be used to produce, and are involved at every stage of including distribution of the product (including, for example, food).
The individual has little choice in what he or she will do as a career. Strict government regulations about education filter people into certain jobs.
One advantage is that wealth is more evenly distributed.
Disadvantages
There is a lack of incentive to work hard or show inventiveness
Lack of consumer choices
No reason to work efficiently since the government sets salaries
Real world examples: North Korea, parts of the People’s Republic of China
Market
The market system is one that many of you are probably the most familiar with because it is also known as capitalism. In this system, economic decisions are not made by the government but by individuals looking out for their own interests, which, according to the “father of modern economics” Adam Smith, is what makes the economy work. Individuals own the factors of production (businesses and machines, etc) and therefore they can choose what they want to produce and how. They can also choose what to buy with the income they received from selling their labor.
Prices in this system change according to the market mood, acting as signals as to what should be bought and produced. This explains the overabundance of fad items like beanie babies and Backstreet Boys CDs. Something becomes popular and businesses rush to fill the consumer want, but like all fads, it fades and there’s an over saturation of the product still on the market, though usually discounted by then.
Advantages:
Freedom to choose career and how you spend your money
Freedom to own property
Freedom to take risks in business and earn a profit
Competition ensures wide range of choice
Disadvantage:
Those too young, too old, or too sick to work can be left behind. In fact, some fear that if it wasn’t for government, churches, family, and other organizations, these marginalized people would have little chance of survival.
This kind of system tends to create an income gap with very few people having most of the money in the economy.
Real world example: The United States
Mixed
A common mixed system combines the elements of market and command. Most countries of the world have a mixed economy in which private ownership of property and individual decision-making are combined with government intervention and regulations. Federal, state, and local governments make laws protecting private property and regulate certain areas of business (such as in environmental protection, safety guidelines, and laws to protect consumers).
An advantage to a mixed system is the checks and balances built into it. One disadvantage, however, is that governmental oversight may become excessive, leaning too far in the command system range.
Real world example: Canada |
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From: dizzyduck
Nice to see the return of Campbell and Hero With a Thousand Faces. I really enjoy the newsletters where you focus on a part of his book.  Those and your animal NLs are by far the best out of all the Fantasy NLs I receive.
I'm going to have to look into buying Hero... Campbell seems a bit longwinded with his explanations, but I bet it's a fantastic (no pun intended  ) read all the same.
Keep up the excellent work!
Thank you! Yes, Hero is a little long-winded, but it is fascinating stuff.
From: feegreen
Hey, Erin! Great newsletter! :) Joseph Campbell is MY hero when it comes to story structure. Thanks for including the helpful 'framing' questions.
You're welcome! Thanks for writing and stay tuned for other newsletters in this series .
From: alicengoreland
Thank you so much for featuring my contest in your newsletter.
I love you selection of "Magician: Apprentice". It is just the kind of read I look for.
I read everything I could in this weeks newsletter.
Thanks for the hard work.
Thank you! I'm glad you liked the selection; that's why I started adding books to the newsletters, because I love getting good recommendations myself . |
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Fantasy: July 11, 2007 Issue [#1820]
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