David replied to me: > A TL6 world isn't going to be able to sell a TL6 plane to someone who > can buy a similar looking, same-capacity plane from a TL10-2 provider > for the same or less money.
Far Trader explains this on p. 10. It is called comparative advantage. Say there are two worlds, called 6 and 10. Every month, planet 6 can build two aircraft or two new video games or a combination (i.e. one of each). Every month, planet 10 can build four aircraft or eight video games or a combination - same population, but 10 has a higher TL and is hence more effective. But with video games, the difference is a lot more pronounced than with aircraft, since debugging punch cards is hell. Each planet needs one aircraft per month, and it would like as many new video games as it can get. Now look at the possible combinations for full employment: Planet 6 Planet 10 Total A) 2 A + 0 V 0 A + 8 V 2 A + 8 V B) 1 A + 1 V 1 A + 6 V 2 A + 7 V C) 0 A + 2 V 2 A + 4 V 2 A + 6 V Of course by your reasoning, the people on Planet 6 should build nothing because they're worse at either aircraft and video games. So there is a fourth option: Planet 6 Planet 10 Total D) nothing 2 A + 4 V 2 A + 4 V In a perfect market, planet 6 should build all the aircraft both for itself and for planet 10, and planet 10 should build all the video games both for itself and planet 6. I don't believe that the market will be perfect in the sense that the people on 10 will fly in aircraft four TLs out of date, but I do believe that the people on 6 will fly in a locally made plane. So option B) is it ... And exactly the same reasoning will work if there are two TL6 worlds trading with each other and the rest of the Imperium, one building aircraft and one building wine, except that there are many more letters and combinations. > The plane built by the high tech people > would be the same basic design, but made of TL10 material. If the high-tech people tried to get into the market, they'd be stupid not to sell grav flyers. That's where their comparative advantage lies if one looks only on the aviation sector. > Which would you buy -- a 375K TL6 plane, or a 375K TL6-looking plane, > if the second one has maintance requirements of "clean the > windshields" as the only maintance item in the first 100 years? > David Scheidt If both are on the market for that price, someone has been manipulating the currency exchange rates (or prices/wages, if both use the same currency). Onno _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
