GALNET - 09 MAY 3308 - RACKHAM ACHIEVES TRILLIONAIRE STATUS
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But we are powerful, just as he is. We can control whole star systems with force, coercion etc via the BGS and own multi-kilometer long fleet carriers. We 'know' secretive engineers who tune our ships to lethal machines and belong to a shadowy Federation.
He's just doing his way politically with in lore connections after possibly being a criminal via lore and story just as we do via the Pilots Fed / Dark Wheel / Engineers / Powers etc.
Though this would be avoidable simply by adding a few more zeroes to Rackham. If he was a quadrillionaire instead, then at that point, sure, the very richest PF Commander might - if they spent all their money - be able to buy a planet. But the (above)average mercenary commodore with their FC and crew certainly wouldn't - while still nevertheless commanding a decent amount of local power and influence.
Sure, the in-game economy doesn't make a lot of sense but the story could still be scaled to it.
It was a bit of a surprise to me. I never thought CMDRs were all that rich in 3308. Wealthy, yeah, but rich? People in the corporations. People that buy and own starbases, people like the powers, those are the rich. I figured rich in 3308 was quadrillionaire, quintillionaire type stuff.
I mean you think about how many credits Faulcon DeLacy makes selling thousands upon thousands of Anacondas. That's rich in 3308. Then you've got Brewer being even crazier than that. I mean what do starbases cost? 40 billion? 50? They last a long time so... 200? 300? 500?
I mean you think about how many credits Faulcon DeLacy makes selling thousands upon thousands of Anacondas. That's rich in 3308. Then you've got Brewer being even crazier than that. I mean what do starbases cost? 40 billion? 50? They last a long time so... 200? 300? 500?
They could... but what does that look like? Like... what does a net worth of 1 trillion look like in the universe?
The total stock holdings of this station at galactic average prices is ~135 billion. There's five like it, then there's the planetary settlements... odds are the total stock of that entire system would be coming close to that, if not a half to three quarters of a billion (given there's five similar outposts)? So let's say a system of 13 billion people has a roughly output of 750b of goods available on the market. The galaxy has about 6.6 trillion people in that. So to scale that out naively[1] So the galaxy in terms of it's market commodities is worth roughly 381 trillion[2].
So... Rackham being a quadrillionaire doesn't make a huge amount of sense in that (very rough[3]) context, since where would all that money actually lie?
Of course, the world starts coming apart when you start talking about things like (the artist formerly known as) Borann, CG payouts (and CGs in general)... and let alone how Rackham can have any money at all considering how much he pays for Wine
. But anyway... Rackham has a net worth of 1 trillion, in a galaxy worth roughly 381 trillion... or roughly 0.25% of the galaxy's worth at a point in time. Incidentally, Elon Musk's worth is $220b USD in our world where the global GDP is ~80 trillion... or roughly 0.25% again... so this tracks and matches expectations.
... so the fact there's people brushing this off like a nothing-thing (which I think is fair enough) kinda lends credence to the fact there's a substantial amount of cognitive dissonance needed to be comfortable with the idea that random commanders matching this is "no biggy"... which suggests there's some core issues with the way the game portrays itself (and it's stories). We could just add zeros to Rackham's worth, but for it to make any sense, the value of the galaxy needs to prop up too.
[1] not all systems are the same. The market product of a 22b population extraction system would be much, much higher than that of a 22b pop colony, which only produces biowaste really.
[2] Would love to actually see the numbers on this.
[3] I calculated this based on a Refinery economy and scaled it out. Reality is the galaxy's net product value is probably much less.
The majority of that stock rotates on a 2- or 3-day basis, though, so the market commodities value per year is probably about 100 times that.
Working the other way:
- bubble stock reserves are about 100 billion tonnes total
- a normal "galactic average" price is probably around 1000 credits
- 100 rotations per year
So bubble production is probably of the order of 10 quadrillion credits per year in terms of interstellar trade.
On top of that you've got to add domestic production and consumption, and service economic contribution, to get to GDP (based on 21st century figures, roughly double it to 20 quadrillion credits for trade in products, and double it again to 40 quadrillion to cover trade in services)
On that basis it probably wouldn't be reasonable for Rackham to be a quadrillionaire, but he should definitely be looking at around the 100 trillion mark to be comparable with today's ultra-ultra-rich.
Working the other way:
- bubble stock reserves are about 100 billion tonnes total
- a normal "galactic average" price is probably around 1000 credits
- 100 rotations per year
So bubble production is probably of the order of 10 quadrillion credits per year in terms of interstellar trade.
On top of that you've got to add domestic production and consumption, and service economic contribution, to get to GDP (based on 21st century figures, roughly double it to 20 quadrillion credits for trade in products, and double it again to 40 quadrillion to cover trade in services)
On that basis it probably wouldn't be reasonable for Rackham to be a quadrillionaire, but he should definitely be looking at around the 100 trillion mark to be comparable with today's ultra-ultra-rich.
Considering the access to what is effectively unlimited supplies of all natural minerals and ores and anything else mineable... the value of all of that should be simply based on time spent mining (which is worth the same no matter what you are mining) and the fuel costs in transporting it.
Since scarcity doesn't come into play as supply massively dwarfs demand and there is no difference in cost (other than the above 2 metrics) regardless of what you are mining.
So attempting to bring our fake economy into reality would have to struggle with the fact that it doesn't make any sense to exist the way it does. As soon as price of a manufactured good rises much higher than the cost, someone else would come up and produce the item. most items are not as trade-secret and impossible to produce as the frame shift drive. And unlike companies in modern times, the human market is too large for most industries to keep a monopoly thru the means they have available, and the resources being so plentiful and readily available gives such monopolies very little means of coming to be or sustaining themselves when they are turning a profit.
In any case, I still highly suspect this particular story and business was chosen to give us a hint. That the next big feature that fdev hinted at with their roadmap is the previously leaked roadmap item of station building. It would be a massive surprise addition in a year of disappointments that would appeal to non-current odyssey players in a way that other odyssey features have not and in a way that the carrier does not. I'm putting all of my remaining optimism for the game on this being the case.
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