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Questions tagged [economy]

For questions regarding wealth, trade, or financial concepts.

2 votes
3 answers
237 views

Prince Rupert' Drop Armor: How Expensive?

I recently saw this short which showed that, if you melted the tail off of a Prince Rupert's Drop, the head would retain its characteristic toughness without the vulnerability of the tail. This got my ...
RHF's user avatar
  • 577
13 votes
23 answers
5k views

What goods yield the best profit for time-travel arbitrage?

You have a time machine... of sorts. It allows you to go into the past in an alternate universe. This universe started the same as ours, until visits from time travelers like yourself started making ...
Zags's user avatar
  • 2,981
40 votes
14 answers
8k views

Could a Black Market exist in a cashless society (digital currency)?

I'm writing a story about a fictional city-state on Earth. This city-state is very similar to modern-day Singapore. One unique aspect about Ebonia is that it is a 100% cashless society. All money ...
Rhymehouse's user avatar
  • 4,453
2 votes
3 answers
172 views

What do rich people do differently with their bodies in the future? [closed]

To take a drastic oversimplification that is not reflective of many individuals opinions or of entire regions/cultures/subcultures throughout history, standards of attractiveness have evolved with our ...
Zags's user avatar
  • 2,981
-2 votes
5 answers
224 views

Do you know any traditional non-electric Gold measuring devices?

I have a currency system that uses gold coins. Standard-weight coins bearing marks of state sovereigns exist and they have several features to keep people from shaving-off of them; nonetheless, ...
EMS's user avatar
  • 337
-3 votes
2 answers
157 views

Economy of hardened wood versus metal in medieval times

People of science have learned how to make hardened wood that can be sharpened and behave like a metal blade, roughly half as soft has mild steel and on level with bronze. The process of hardening ...
Reincarnated as a worldbuilder's user avatar
23 votes
12 answers
5k views

A world where some currency loses value when handled would have a deflationary economy. What would the consequences to society be?

Imagine a world which looks roughly like what we might call the “standard D&D setting”; not quite medieval, not quite Renaissance, something like 17th century London, where a penny buys a day’s ...
sil's user avatar
  • 330
27 votes
10 answers
5k views

Why machine worlds?

A machine world (or forge world, or industrial world, or factory world, etc. etc. etc.), as I will define it for the purposes of this question, is a planet (or sufficiently large moon or asteroid) ...
controlgroup's user avatar
  • 5,435
5 votes
4 answers
428 views

What if a wizard mass produces gold and silver to crash the market?

A Wizard that grew up poor and resentful of the jewellery of the rich people around him decides he'll end the allure of gold and silver for good. For this purpose, he immediately produces a billion ...
Thales's user avatar
  • 705
18 votes
10 answers
2k views

How would the existence of sapient "Pet Rocks" affect the economy of a medieval kingdom?

The world: A standard medieval European-ish fantasy world, with very limited magic, which aside from the titular exception has little to no effect on everyday life. The continent is divided into ...
Going Durden's user avatar
  • 6,001
-1 votes
1 answer
90 views

How would a galactic scale industry affect local industry or global industry? [closed]

The setting that I am asking about is a massive almost galaxy-spanning country that has an industrial chokehold on all the other nations around it. However, large-scale industry in this setting ...
amertheminer37's user avatar
-4 votes
2 answers
191 views

How did she buy her freedom? Any ideas? [closed]

In my book, an alien race conquers the earth and kidnaps the most intelligent or prominent people in certain branches of science where they consider that humans are more advanced. Shortly after, a ...
Hedufigo's user avatar
  • 363
7 votes
11 answers
4k views

What would be the cheapest way to demolish large amounts of buildings when damage to the surrounding area isn't a concern?

A group of people from an alternate universe want to extract resources from the remains of a post apocalyptic US. However, a quite large quantity of these resources are locked up in large buildings. ...
OT-64 SKOT's user avatar
  • 4,741
6 votes
9 answers
2k views

How do (near future) people travel between floating islands?

In the near future, the surface of the Earth becomes magically unlivable. However, luckily for people, there are now magically floating islands in the skies (typically 5000-8000 feet above the surface)...
Jarred Allen's user avatar
  • 4,838
1 vote
8 answers
360 views

Utopia city, a place with no poverty [closed]

I was researching how a fantasy city would in theory reduce poverty to 0, and found out that China reduced poverty down to 0%... from the year 2000 when 49% of the population was living below the ...
Reincarnated as a worldbuilder's user avatar

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