Wormholes & the New Solaruan League

tlb wrote:To KZT's point: deficit spending is not unknown in wartime. Manticore has the same advantage in reserves that Great Britain had going into WWII.

Sure. And if every industrial facility and military base in the British Isles had exploded on 10, July 1940, a month after they decided to boycott all trade with the rest of the world other then South Africa and Madagascar, this might have had some effects on the outcome of the war.

Daryl wrote:For Brigade XO.
I once negotiate a five year lease for a small fleet of turboprops. The opposing negotiators failed to insert an inflation clause, and as well thought to shaft me by insisting it be in US dollars. I went along with it knowing that in all probability the Australian dollar was going the opposite way to what they expected. Saved my government about $6M overall. Got a pat on the back, but no commission, sigh.

Oh, yeah. I once discovered a bank where I used to work had about $2M in irrevocable letters outstanding- that had been charged off about 10 years prior to a bankrupt developer but were still in the hands of the Town they had been issued in-favor of. That was a serious liability for the bank which would never get get paid if drawn upon. After a bunch of research -the projects had never broken ground and land later sold- I was able to talk with the town and get the LC's surrendered. Eliminated 2M in very big problem contingent liabilites and made nice positive adjustments to both our reserve requirements and balance sheets. Pat on head from my boss, yelled at by his boss -who had difficulty understanding what I had done, didn't read the memo and didn't notice I had fixed her problem (that she had ignored for 10 years) and wasn't ready when she got asked about it at the Board Meeting so she screwed up the answer. That, of course, was my fault only because she made herself look bad. That also ment that she could't manage to take credit for the fix/save.
Politics....

tlb wrote:To KZT's point: deficit spending is not unknown in wartime. Manticore has the same advantage in reserves that Great Britain had going into WWII.

kzt wrote:Sure. And if every industrial facility and military base in the British Isles had exploded on 10, July 1940, a month after they decided to boycott all trade with the rest of the world other then South Africa and Madagascar, this might have had some effects on the outcome of the war.

That might be a very good analogy; but you ignore the stockpile of narrativium that can carry Manticore through the crisis.

tlb wrote:That might be a very good analogy; but you ignore the stockpile of narrativium that can carry Manticore through the crisis.

Well, yeah. But it would have been nice if we'd seen ANY evidence that destroying the entire industrial sector and all the major bases of the RMN had impact on operations of the RMN. Are people suddenly deeply concerned with recon drone supply? Or admiralty concern about impeller wear on RMN readiness? No.

tlb wrote:

Peregrinator wrote:Ah, but that is not possible since, in the SKM, one can't receive more in welfare than one pays into the system.

I do not think that is right; my understanding is that a person loses the right to vote if they receive more in benefits (which does not count government pay) than they pay in tax.

You are right, thank you for the correction, and my apologies to kzt.

kzt wrote:

tlb wrote:That might be a very good analogy; but you ignore the stockpile of narrativium that can carry Manticore through the crisis.

Well, yeah. But it would have been nice if we'd seen ANY evidence that destroying the entire industrial sector and all the major bases of the RMN had impact on operations of the RMN. Are people suddenly deeply concerned with recon drone supply? Or admiralty concern about impeller wear on RMN readiness? No.

Yeah, it felt like listening to people dining at a 5-star restaurant, while they complain about having to tighten their belts.

Can we get another bottle of this red?

kzt wrote:

tlb wrote:That might be a very good analogy; but you ignore the stockpile of narrativium that can carry Manticore through the crisis.

Well, yeah. But it would have been nice if we'd seen ANY evidence that destroying the entire industrial sector and all the major bases of the RMN had impact on operations of the RMN. Are people suddenly deeply concerned with recon drone supply? Or admiralty concern about impeller wear on RMN readiness? No.

The SEM has Beawulf along with Sidemore, Talbot and other allied systems whose limited industrial capacity can provide parts for routine maintainsnce. Even Grayson could manufacture replacement impellar nodes in HotQ.

tlb wrote:That might be a very good analogy; but you ignore the stockpile of narrativium that can carry Manticore through the crisis.

kzt wrote:Well, yeah. But it would have been nice if we'd seen ANY evidence that destroying the entire industrial sector and all the major bases of the RMN had impact on operations of the RMN. Are people suddenly deeply concerned with recon drone supply? Or admiralty concern about impeller wear on RMN readiness? No.

TFLYTSNBN wrote:The SEM has Beawulf along with Sidemore, Talbot and other allied systems whose limited industrial capacity can provide parts for routine maintainsnce. Even Grayson could manufacture replacement impellar nodes in HotQ.

Do we know that Grayson made them, or did they have them in stock from Manticore? What chapter of HotQ? Are we only talking about the small Grayson ships?

The problem with what Grayson could do potentially, is that their ship building industry was also eliminated in Oyster Bay.

I admit the force of KZT's objections and referenced rebuilding as something that was too easy in the "root against Manticore" thread. I did not intent to make light of the problem when making the joke.

TFLYTSNBN wrote:The SEM has Beawulf along with Sidemore, Talbot and other allied systems whose limited industrial capacity can provide parts for routine maintainsnce. Even Grayson could manufacture replacement impellar nodes in HotQ.

Crappy impellers that wouldn't allow sails and had very reduced performance.

But if you are pouring sand in one end and getting finished parts out the end, then what is the need for experienced people? Why are you worried about replacing equipment? You just use your largest box to print out a bigger box, and 3-5 generations later they can print out hyperdrives and fusion plants.

All these problems are not problems.

Peregrinator wrote:

kzt wrote:From here is looks like the SKM looks like CA or N.Y., where a fairly small number of extremely wealthy people run companies that employ hundreds of thousands of people that are mealthy, but everyone else is either getting by with their feminist dance degree job or depending on welfare, while the state is stupported by the taxes of wealthy.

Ah, but that is not possible since, in the SKM, one can't receive more in welfare than one pays into the system.

That's not actually correct.
1) As tlb pointed out last week you certainly can receive more in direct government transfer payments than you pay in taxes - you're just can't vote again until that somehow balances back out.

2) RFC has clarified (somewhere) that the limit applies to direct government transfer payments to the individual. They can subsidize things (prolong for example) for everybody and it doesn't count as a government payment to anybody.
There are less extreme examples, but it's obvious that it can't cover indirect government payments/subsidies because if it did High Ridge's public works / 'vote buying' schemes would backfire by disenfranchising many of the people whose he expected to vote for his government coalition because of the economic benefits they received from that peace dividend.