Tariffs and You (Mongoose edition)

[Condottiere]

Turn them into a banana republic, because the local consumers refuse to purchase a specific brand of air/raft?

 

[Sigtrygg]

You buy the goods the Imperium sells you or you get re-educated.

 

[Condottiere]

That's not a free market policy.

There might be Imperium restrictions on imports of Aslan, Zhodani, and Vargr goods, but none on cherry picking from other polities within the Imperium, except, possibly, Red Zoned.

 

[Sigtrygg]

Enlighten me, how is insisting on no trade barriers not a free market policy?

The Imperium insists on free trade - no barriers, no boycotts, a free market - with its member worlds.

 

[DigrizJB]

TLDNR (To Long Did Not Read): Would someone share their shorthand notes for this lecture: History 401 Economic Policies of a Dystopian Imperium? But Honestly, as others have pointed out, this is an interesting discussion. I thought I was a Real Dystopian, but now I think I am merely Dystopian Lite after reading these comments.

 

[dragon3r]

It's a free market in a slave state, running on greed and corruption. No law except the will of the autocrat, violence as the final authority. Keep your bribery, forgery, and streetwise skills sharp.

 

[Sigtrygg]

Globalist free trade is driven by slave labour - slavery in the strip mines, slavery in the Chinese factories, even slavery among container ship crews.

The western nations are more than happy to feel guilty over a slave trade they abolished two hundred years ago, while ignoring the slavery which guarantees them cheap consumer goods.

 

[Condottiere]

You can't force consumers to consume a brand, unless you impose a monopoly, which tends to contradict no barrier trade policy.

 

[Arkathan]

Consumers can buy what they want from what is available. The premise was a government initiated boycott. That is like the DNC donors and their shell NGOs funding the burning of Tesla's and shooting at dealerships.

 

[Sigtrygg]

The Imperial corporations import many brands from many Imperial corporations to your world.

Your population has the choice of one of the many cheap Imperial brands or a much more expensive local brand.

Do you make sure everything you buy supports your country or do you buy the brands you like at the most reasonable price?

 

[actionman]

Globalist free trade is driven by slave labour - slavery in the strip mines, slavery in the Chinese factories, even slavery among container ship crews.

The western nations are more than happy to feel guilty over a slave trade they abolished two hundred years ago, while ignoring the slavery which guarantees them cheap consumer goods.

This might be too spicy for this forum, but:

Western nations are being 'helped' to feel guilty by decades of incessant pounding Western Man Bad propaganda in schools and the media. Ireland and its colonial empire, tsk tsk.

Here's a different view: The British Crusade Against Slavery

And African migrants today are being captured and enslaved in Arab North African countries, but no one makes a peep because it doesn't serve an anti-Western agenda. It demonstrates how much the loudest voices about the past evils of slavery committed by Western countries really don't care at all.

‘It Was As if We Weren’t Human.’ Inside the Modern Slave Trade Trapping African Migrants

An estimated 650,000 have crossed the Sahara desert in the last 5 years seeking a better life. But thousands have been sold into slavery.

time.com

 

[Condottiere]

While I can't speak for Aslans and Vargrs, human consumption tends to be partially based on psychology, which can be manipulated.

Hence, marketing.

I wouldn't eat cat or dog meat.

But I do eat horse steak.

 

[Arkathan]

Wouldn't eat cat or dog... Are you sure? Ever been to a non-franchise Chinese restaurant?
Even in the nineties we were chided about using stereotypes. That didn't stop the restaurant inspectors from shutting down three local restaurants in one year due to cat carcasses in their coolers.

 

[Condottiere]

I've never visited Mainland China, nor have plans to do so.

My ancestors have, though.

I think the dish translates to false rabbit.

 

[actionman]

The Imperial corporations import many brands from many Imperial corporations to your world.

Your population has the choice of one of the many cheap Imperial brands or a much more expensive local brand.

Do you make sure everything you buy supports your country or do you buy the brands you like at the most reasonable price?

And what do you buy when the industries of your own world went out of business generations ago when cheap offworld imports made them unprofitable, and there's nothing but cheap Imperial brands?

 

[Condottiere]

Depends, on who sets your industrial policies, and what interest groups are in a position to lobby.

Also, chances are that historical records would pretty much indicate how this would turn out, if counter measures aren't taken.

 

[actionman]

Also, this gives Imperial noble characters a lot to do. Imperial nobles are the people who have to balance and manage these networks of commerce and political - business relationships while keeping the poors from upsetting things.

It segues nicely into adventures or campaigns involving Imperial nobles, political and business intrigues, merchants, and mercenaries. Instead of wandering monsters travelling player characters who go to a planet, deal with a situation, then leave, imagine a campaign focused on some low level Imperial nobles and their retainers, who must solve these problems because their noble families or their subsector duke are relying on them to do so. If they fail to solve these problems and restore balanced political - commercial productivity, the subsector duke might take their families' fief away from them and give it to their rivals. A long term campaign could see the rise and fall and rise of a noble family's fortunes, determined by the adventures of the player characters and their entourage.

 

[Sigtrygg]

Depends, on who sets your industrial policies, and what interest groups are in a position to lobby.

Also, chances are that historical records would pretty much indicate how this would turn out, if counter measures aren't taken.

The Imperium dictates your trade policy, everything follows from that. You can take no counter measures without inviting interdiction or worse.

The Imperial free trade is not for the betterment of the world, it is for the betterment of the Imperium.

Prior to this thread I always thought the Imperium were the bad guys, now I realise they are a whole lot worse than that.

 

[Arkathan]

I've never visited Mainland China, nor have plans to do so.

My ancestors have, though.

I think the dish translates to false rabbit.

What does not going to mainland China have to do with a restaurant that serves Chinese style food?

 

[actionman]

The Imperial free trade is not for the betterment of the world, it is for the betterment of the Imperium.

Imperial free trade is not for the betterment of the member worlds, nor for the betterment of the Imperium. It's for the betterment of the nobles, the megacorporations, and the merchant princes. All one and the same, really. The betterment of the Imperium is a side effect.