random pointless swirls

[sturdycoldsteel]

The shaper known as Steel is flying down the right side of a road, shoring up the edges of the bluestream that lets her lift herself off the ground as she goes. Sure, she'll be a bit clumsy and weak when she gets to Opri, but she's not planning on doing much more stream-shaping today, so might as well.

She glances at the bluestream (the magical vision blinds her physical vision for a short moment, but not long enough to crash into anything) and determines that this next crossroads is where she needs to turn. She tilts to the right...

...And lands on a patch of orange grass in a forest clearing. This is not the town of Opri. She opens her eyes and ears to the bluestream, trying to figure out what the hell is going on.

The bluestream here isn't a nice, orderly, useful pattern like on the roads, or the formless fog that it usually decays to after a while. Instead it's a riot of random patterns swirling around, wispy and confused and obviously not designed to do anything useful.

Steel, deaf and blind for a few seconds thanks to her peek at the bluestream, stands very still and is very confused.

Comments

[imeanforever]

"Do the poor people desire money more than the rich people do?"

[sturdycoldsteel]

"People vary. But generally, rich people don't care as much about the same amount of money, because they have so much of it."

[imeanforever]

"So, it seems perfectly reasonable to charge the rich people enough that, using their money, you can pay the poor people enough to be delighted for the opportunity. I assume the work isn't so staggeringly unpleasant that you couldn't find some equilibrium? It doesn't involve being flayed or sorting slightly different colors of sand into separate heaps or anything like that?"

[sturdycoldsteel]

"You mean, increase taxes on the rich, which will increase pay for the poor? That would work. I don't think it's very elegant, but it would work. It'll be a very bitter pill for those in power right now to swallow, though. We are probably going to have to compromise, at least for now, to actually bring stability back into the world."

"I think the right not to have one's stuff stolen by whoever is in charge and the right to say what's on one's mind without fear of being punished for it are more important than the civil service, so that's what I was intending to be our sticking points."

[imeanforever]

"Punished how and by whom?"

[sturdycoldsteel]

"If you say unkind things about those more powerful than you, they can have you thrown into jail or killed without much consequence to themselves. That absolutely, positively has to go. I'm less upset about other things."

[imeanforever]

"I am in full agreement there."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"Good to hear. So, priorities are a very thoroughly reformed justice system first, with a focus on free speech and right to property and the powerful actually being accountable. Second, restructure the civil service and tax system if we can swing it. We can work out details later, but are there any other big things that should be on that list? Steel?"

Maybe expand the school system. Fully educated shapers are much more versatile than those that come out of trade schools.

[imeanforever]

"What's the shape of the current system of education and why does it produce such disparate results?"

[sturdycoldsteel]

"The state runs two types of schools. General schools are open to everyone, and everyone is strongly encouraged but not outright required to attend. They run for a few hours a day every other day from age ten to age sixteen, teaching reading, writing, math, history, that sort of thing. Trade schools thoroughly educate you on a specific aspect of bluestream, so you can do a particular job reliably. If you attend a trade school, your civil service is almost always doing the job you trained for. Neither general schools or trade schools charge anything to attend them or forbid anybody for trivial reasons."

"Privately owned schools or books are how you get a good, generalized knowledge of - anything, bluestream included. But as the advanced schools are privately owned and the owners are interested in making money, they charge to attend them. Plenty of people take the free education from general and trade schools, but don't want to pay for a more thorough education. We both attend Opri Grande learning the stream. We did before the war, anyway."

[imeanforever]

"If I ran a shaping school, was interested in amassing a lot of money, and was any good at it I'd give people loans to attend, if I thought I could teach them enough for them to get good jobs and pay me back with interest."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"What's a loan?"

[imeanforever]

"...I'm reconstructing all of this based on a possibly fictionalized series of books about a colony of glowgolds that got so big that they had a miniature liquid economy of their own, but the principle seemed sound. Suppose I have a magic school. Suppose I think I can teach people to be really good at magic, and that they will then be so good at magic that they'll make a lot of money. Suppose that I am not, right at this moment, desperate for money, and that you want to learn magic but don't have any money. What I could do is give you free tuition on the condition that you give me part of what you make doing shaping after you graduate. Since I think you'll make a lot of money after you graduate and I don't need money right away, it's a good deal."

[sturdycoldsteel]

Steel manages to visible herself during this explanation. Success, she lights, I could tell that was me, and not your invisibility wearing off.

"That seems like it would work. It sounds familiar now that you describe it, but I've only ever heard of such a thing in terms of merchants exchanging goods with each other. Merchant A gives merchant B his cargo of wheat in the fall right now since it will rot soon if he doesn't sell it, and next spring merchant B gives merchant A the agreed-upon price, slightly higher than it would have been if he had the money ready in the fall."

Steel comments, I'm not sure how well it would work for people not familiar with the practice, or for smaller amounts of money than an entire ship's worth of grain.

[imeanforever]

"I can't be sure that it works like I said even under ideal conditions. But it seems like it should, if it failed it would be for some sort of reason, and investigating that and other behaviors of economies seems more long-term sensible than trying to take on more projects than we can handle immediately. Especially since sorcery is also available to compensate for inflexible partially-trained shapers."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"Right. Project for another time. And indeed, sorcery is going to make everything a lot easier."

I've mostly focused my recent studies on combining what I learn in sorcery and what bluestream can do.

[imeanforever]

"So, saying unkind things should not result in imprisonment or death, first priority..." Promise writes this down.

[sturdycoldsteel]

The authorities should not be able to take your stuff without your permission.

"And they shouldn't get away with anything that everyone else would be punished for, just generally."

[imeanforever]

Write write. "...There's an implicit exception for taxation, I assume? Or is it actually customary to ask permission about that?"

[sturdycoldsteel]

"Implicit exception for taxation, yes. But taxes should be - fairly applied. Perhaps an even percentage of one's income from everyone. The poor will pay only a little, and the rich will pay a lot."

[imeanforever]

"That sounds reasonable, at least as a first approximation. Is that not how it usually works?"

[sturdycoldsteel]

"No. The rich and powerful decide what the taxes are. And this makes them more rich and more powerful."

[imeanforever]

"I'm sensing a theme."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"Yep. It's not quite as bad as you seem to be thinking. A lot of the rich people have, you know, principles. Those without principles tend to restrain themselves at least a little bit for the sake of reputation. And doing anything too nasty will sometimes get everyone angry enough to hit back in a big way. For example, this war we have on our hands."

[imeanforever]

"I did notice that."