Finance of the Future

What's cheap, what's 'spensive.

Baseline finances:
2011 Minimum Wage: 7.25 /hour

If we assume to double that, as a somewhat arbitrary choice, we get to 14.50, round it up to 15 for ease of numbers. We translate it to credits and get the following numbers-

Minimum Daily Wage: 120 Credits
Minimum Weekly Wage: 600 Credits
Minimum Monthly Wage: 2400 Credits

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So we can assume that a complete low level employee would make the 120 credits a day rate, whereas an educated professional would make four times that, give or take. I propose the below chart:

Base Wage: 120 Credits / day (15/hr)
Unskilled Worker: Base x1
Skilled Worker: Basex2
Unskilled Laborer: Basex2
Skilled Laborer: Basex3
Middle Educated Professional: Basex4
Higher Educated Professional: Basex5 or higher

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For our crew, I see the breakdown going as follows:

Frigate Captain: Basex4 (480 Credits/day)
Security Officer: Basex3 (360 Credits/day)
Pilot: Basex3 (360 Credits/day)
NavOps: Basex3 (360 Credits/day)
Medical Officer: Basex4 (480 Credits/day)

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So, for example, Archer's wage for signing on with the Embry-Riddle would be 230,400 credits for all two years. A reasonably large amount but not enough to buy his own ship, which makes the "signing bonus" from Dia even more impressive.

So some ideas:

Fuel Cell: 20,000 Credits

Hotel, one night: 100 Credits

Meal, Cheap: 10 Credits
Meal, Expensive: 50 Credits

Medical Supplies: 200 - 2000 Credits

Rent, Small: 1,200 credits (Colony Apartment)
Rent, Medium: 1,700 credits (Earth Apartment)
Rent, Large: 2,500 Credits (House)
Rent, Excessive: 4,000 Credits+ (Alhambra Apartment, huge house, etc)

Space Suit, cheap: 20,000 Credits
Space Suit, moderate: 40,000 Credits
Space Suit, expensive: 80,000 Credits

Ship, Cruiser: 3,000,000 Credits
Ship, Frigate: 1,500,000 Credits
Ship, Sloop: 1,000,000 Credits
Ship, Yacht: 5,000,000 Credits

Feel free to add more as you get ideas.

Global Standard Credit (GSC): established in 2417 by the Global Administration, the GSC is the rolling-together of the various economies of Earth into one cohesive monetary unit.

More commonly called "credits", the GSC established the baseline wage of pay for levels of work. During the beginning of the Global Administration, GSC's were hit or miss - some colonies still operated on the gold standard or their countries native currency, but by the early 2500's the credit was the currency of trade for all public barter.

Occasionally mis-known as the "Galactic" standard credit, GSC's are monitored and tracked through the GA. For those who wish less tracked, or less reputable sources of income, payment is usually brokered as either a barter system of equipment or precious gems or metal (gold, silver, platinum, etc).

No need to make it complicated. I don't want to have to pull up a reference guide whenever we need to buy something. I'm more thinking that we just need to set guidelines for what we can usually get, what is expensive, and what is way beyond what we could ever afford.

For example:

Food:
We've already established that 'real' meat and fresh fruits and veggies are way expensive and we would never have had them last chron if we weren't all rich and funded by the GAF and Isley. So... We are probably not destitute enough to have to rely on syth meat (shudder) unless we are having a really bad dry spell. If we are doing ok with the cash flow, then we can probably reasonably expect to be able to afford Gen meat. Fresh meat, is probably never ever going to happen. As for fresh fruits and veggies, I expect if we are close in to terra, then this is too expensive for us, but if we are farther out or on/near and agriculture colony, then it might be more reasonable. So, I would say that it's on the more expensive end, but might make for a nice treat now and then. for the most part, our food is probably prefabricated, dehydrated, gen meat, and things reconstituted from protein/nutrient bars.

Granted - I just needed numbers. Or rather, wanted numbers.

Hahaha, you dork. We're not gonna be dealing with credits.

Hydroponics bay. Your doctor is insisting. And she's insisting because I refuse to not have vitamins in green form of some nature for four days. I just can't do it. :/

And yes he knows but he thinks better in numbers on this. I think better in examples (which is why there's examples too)

My 2 Cents.

We should never refer to anything via numbers. It just makes things more complicated. I have designed various financial systems before for various games. It is a a huge pain in the ass and the payoff is usually simply not worth the effort.

Plus as noted previously if we deal with numbers we will need to reference a chart. Since this isn't a table top game and since we don't even have sheets having any kind of hard numbers isn't going to work.

Especially since we are going to have guest stars. Even if we all master the chart and all remember it (not going to happen)our guest players aren't going to do so.

I thus suggest we keep things as simple as possible.

We don't need to know how much each of us make. It isn't important in the least. Our characters are going to band together to survive. Mutual ship income is the only thing that is ultimately important. Do we have enough to get to the next job and feed ourselves in the process?

I thus suggest we worry mostly about physical goods and put each item into 1 of 4 categories.

Cheap - Easy to replace. Basic clothes, cheap basic food, a haircut, etc...

Average - Harder to replace/find but it doesn't break the bank. Medical supplies, ammo, basic ship parts, fruit, docking fees, etc...

Expensive - If it breaks we need to do a job specifically to make enough money to afford it. Harder to find ship parts, real meat, fake ID, etc...

Super Expensive - We need to do multiple jobs to pay for another one. If something in this category breaks we are in serious trouble. Advanced ship parts, a new rover, reconstructive surgery, etc...

I think just putting everything into these 4 categories will keep things consistant without having to constantly worry about exact costs.

Tracking exact numbers is cool in theory but in practice it is just a pain in the ass and without character sheets it would be extremely difficult.

Guys... I don't think jake was trying to do that at all. Actually I know he wasn't. *He* conceptualizes financial "cheap" vs "not cheap" by numbers so he tossed something up that made sense to him. Listing out "expensive" versus "not" works equally well, he was just trying to give a starting point that made sense to his brain. :/

Lana,

The problem is that Haley specifically told us "No hard numbers, just cheap, average, expensive, etc" when we talked about it in person and then Jake gave us a whole bunch of hard numbers in his post.

That is what is causing the confusion/disonnect I think. Plus Jake noted in his follow up post that he wanted real numbers instead of abstract.

I was trying to explain why I think real numbers are a bad idea. They might be handy for Jake but I don't think they hold up when we look at the big picture.

-Andrew-

My point being I think he did it more for his own purpose than to cause confusion so just ignore it. Sorry I just know he was working through it for his own edification last night and since has gotten like six mails of getting fussed at when he wasn't trying to cause a stir. Seriously, just ignore it then. No one else wants numbers - they helped him figure things out in his brain.

I didn't even really read the darned thing because once we talked examples it didn't matter to me.

Numbers help me, but totally are not required. I wanted to play with numbers.

I'm absolutely fine listed out examples of "cheap, moderate, reasonable, expensive, no-way-in-hell-can-we-afford-it".

I agree that we're not going to do a hard and fast list/chart/etc of numbers.

The idea of Char being asked to do math for a fictional economy made me laugh long and hard. She dislikes math and asks me to do it all the time for her.