[MUD-Dev] re: Curtailing the 'Super-Rich Effect'

[Phillip Lenhardt]

On Wed, Apr 18, 2001 at 07:31:24AM +0000, Matt Mihaly wrote:
                                                            I am
> pointing out that a realistic economy requires the vast majority of
> people to live in poverty. It doesn't matter what historical time
> period you pick. Perhaps in some future economy everybody will be
> well-off. As it stands, they're not.

The vast majority of people live in _relative_ poverty. In the United
States, for example, the bottom 50% of residents live better than the
majority of the rest of the world. And though it is arguable, I'd say
that globally, people live better than they did 500 years ago. Fewer
famines, fewer plagues, less warfare, more rights, etc.

> I'm not sure what relevance castles have to economic systems
> generally, but ok.

Putting up a castle at a geographical chokepoint (along a river, in a
mountain pass, on a bridge, etc) is a dandy way of making money as a
toll collector.  It also restricts the flow of trade, so I'd say
castles can have a rather large impact on economic systems.

> Asking who owns the property is a difficult question, because
> ownership isn't a thing. It's a matter of perception.

<snip>

> is just a piece of paper in a government office somewhere or, in the
> case of something like an apple, it's often largely a matter of
> possession being 90% of the law.

Just curious, does Achaea provide a way for players to submit a text,
with game-validated signatures on it, to some sort of city archive?
For example: two players draw up a contract for something that
can't/won't be enforced by the game engine, they use a game engine
feature to each sign it, and then they put it in the city archives
where anyone can then read the contract and verify that the players
did indeed sign it. I would think that something like this would make
it easier for shop owners and city governments to have stable
relations.
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