[TML] [Merchant Shipping] Some ideas I came up with to make merchant shipping more interesing

[Jerry W Barrington]

On 4/26/08 5:20 AM, "shadow at shadowgard.com" <shadow at shadowgard.com> wrote:

> On 19 Apr 2008 at 14:20, Jerry W Barrington wrote:
> 
>> As for the whole low-tech planet issue, if they're all that low tech, why do
>> they need so much electricity?  And if they have all that electricity so
>> cheaply available, why are they still low-tech after centuries?
> 
> A lot of things are easier and cheaper to do with electricity. Power
> tool a water heater, etc.
>
> To become high tech requires improvng local manufacturing.
> 
> And there's a large hump to get over because immported tools and
> appliances are likely better *and* cheaper than locally produced.
> Especially since you need to upgrade one TL at a time so you have the
> tools to build the tools.
> 
> It's *possible* to jump several TLs at once but it's a lot more
> expensive.

I'm not sure I believe that the cost for a major jump would exceed the
*total* cost of several small ones.  Especially considering the time value
of money.  Why do it somewhat cheaper over a century instead of more
expensive over a decade?  The colony planners *know* they need to get their
own tech up and running, or they're just throwing away wealth.

> A lot of high TL imports may well be getting sold at "below cost".
> Stuff that's been sitting in warehouses too long on the high TL
> worlds could get marked down and sold to traders simmply because it
> was no longer worth the cost of storage.

A sizeable import tax could help make local products competitive.