…I may have to have a degree to understand the Ai-Naidari economy. So far I’ve seen three separate money systems: literal money like we have, money that represents hours-offered-for-work, and favors.
So, for instance, you want to buy a fancy dinner. You can pay for it with money. Or you can really do what human beings (or at least, the ones I know) used to joke about and offer to wash dishes for a set amount of time. Or you can offer a favor (though the favors don’t come in “denominations,” and you have to be careful with those because they might be a lot more than the price of a meal…!).
This is on top of a basic allowance made everyone: food, shelter, clothes (none of it complicated, but all of it healthful and serviceable). Money seems to be used for “luxury”… you are tired of eating the same kind of food, then you buy special food. You want to have fancier clothes or jewelry, you buy that. All of that, of course, comes at the price of you being in the system for life; you will never not have a job, and you will never not work. So, yes, everyone in society is taken care of, but everyone is also productive. It makes me wonder if what money is actually buying isn’t scarce resources, but rather productive-hours. And from the moment you’re around six or seven, when your ishas is first evaluated, you’re in training for your work. After that first evaluation, you learn apprentice duties. At your second evaluation, you begin journeyman duties (so all those restless tweens are busy becoming productive members of society!). Once you reach adulthood, you graduate to a full-fledged member of your caste-rank and begin your active caste duties… and once you reach “retirement” you take on the wisdom duties. You work until you die, basically. (But at least you never feel useless!)
I cannot imagine the headaches of those above the Wall of Birth whose jobs entail managing all this so that everyone really is taken care of, but everyone is also doing useful work. (There are, by the way, no banks. Your salary is held by the Noble of the district. You make withdrawals from them.) I have to conclude though that they really do earn their positions, because figuring out how to do all this would be a little like playing SimCity with real people. Kind of terrifying. :,
This is what I get for wondering to myself ‘I wonder if their coins are round.’ (They’re not. They are metal sticks the length of my ring-finger and thinner than a pencil.) I was thinking I needed to add more things to the Ai-Naidari Guidebook anyway, so I will blame Cynthia for all this! *grin*
Ah well. As long as I’m digging around in this stuff, I might as well learn all the names for these things. *rolls up sleeves* *gets out lexicon*
