Yun Hee Ryeon
Dead Six Initiative
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Posted - 2013.08.29 18:21:00 -
[1] - Quote
XANDER KAG wrote:And the millions to billions dead on both sides was worth it? Yes, the Caldari needed an excuse to get the efficiency of a wartime economy , but at what cost?
Soldier, the current limited conflict with the Federation is messy, and violent, but it's neither very large nor very intense. It's more like a continuous, ongoing series of skirmishes that mostly involve capsuleer militias.
In other words, it's not demanding replacement of ships, weapons, and personnel at the sort of rate that fuels the standard-model "wartime economy."
Please don't assume that the capitalistic structure of the State means that everything it does is for profit, soldier. It's a society, rather inwardly-concerned, but a complete, functioning society, not just a wealth-generating mechanism. |
Yun Hee Ryeon
Dead Six Initiative
Lokun Listamenn
210
|
Posted - 2013.08.29 23:07:00 -
[2] - Quote
XANDER KAG wrote:And what about the crews of those capsuleer vessels? Yes, your government doesn't lose much, but millions die none the less.
I wasn't doubting your society's motives. My concern is the cost in lives that it took to bring your economy back to its current strength. Besides can you really deny that this war has helped bring your economy somewhat back to health? Even if it was just a new sense of purpose for your people that lead to it?
I don't assume that any more than you must think us nothing, but tribal savages. Don't force yourself to see racism where it doesn't exist.
Respectfully, soldier, it's not really about racism; it takes a fairly foolish person to think the Caldari are somehow genetically wedded to profit. It's more a matter of cultural stereotyping: many outsiders think the Caldari are all about profit, and, from an outsider's perspective, this may often appear to actually be the case.
As far as the war's effect on the Caldari economy goes: it may have helped in certain areas, but the most visible single result has been a major institution (Kaalakiota) looted to pay for the war. Kaalakiota is a major arms manufacturer, but rather than profiting from expanded sales, it has seen its coffers drained to finance the Provists and the war effort in Black Rise. A consequence of entangling one's financial and governmental institutions, I suppose.
I may be naiive in this, but it seems to me that the largest single factor in the revitalization of the State economy is the restoration of the meritocracy. Before the Brothers of Freedom incident that swept Tibus Heth into the interstellar spotlight, the Caldari corporations had broadly fallen into a pattern where a stagnant Executive plutocracy, secure in its privilege, took shameless and exploitative advantage of the lower castes.
This may have helped profits, but it did little for the continued buying power of the work force. If you pay your workers wages they can barely survive on, you have little cause to complain that they don't spend more of it on gambling or sporting events you put on.
Nowadays, the meritocracy is an actual meritocracy again rather than a thin veneer over a plutocracy well on its way to becoming an aristocracy, and the Laborer and Technician castes are a bit more reliably given their due. It's a necessary correction for the State's health, and one that can hardly help but aid the economy. That's something we can actually thank Tibus Heth for. Otherwise, the former Executor's reign was a mixed blessing at best.
Of course, these reforms occurred at much the same time as the "war" got going, so it's difficult to say which had the larger effect. My sense of it is that the restoration of the State's traditional order did it all manner of good, but I can't say I think the fighting has done any damage to the arms trade-- well, unless your letterhead reads, "Kaalakiota," anyway. |