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I'm not sure how the economy of the Empire works, but I am pretty sure it's not a "libertarian fever dream" as suggested by the article. Most of the places in S

I'm not sure how the economy of the Empire works, but I am pretty sure it's not a "libertarian fever dream" as suggested by the article. Most of the places in Star Wars are places not under the thumb of the Empire, and the closest place I can even see that isn't effectively a black market (like Mos Eisley) is Cloud City, which, of course, the government came in and shut down after promising it would allow it to operate freely. Where free trade does seem to operate (the Trade Federation) it leads to corruption and war. And let's not forget that Han Solo is a smuggler. He's in debt because the government caught him with contraband and had to lose it. Star Trek also features many other economies, including that of the Ferengi, which are extremely materialistic. This is the focus of many DS9 episodes. And even the Federation crew somehow get their hands on money to spend; money that mysteriously can't be replicated. (And, in DS9, back on Earth, Sisko's father makes honest-to-goodness actual food, while Jean-Luc has a vineyard.) Likewise, it's not clear how replicator use works; perhaps they have an allowance. The crew of the Enterprise barely use it, except for food. Their quarters are scarce. So either through monetary, social, or rule-based means, they limit themselves heavily compared to the average American today.

sandworm101 10y ago
Fever dream, but with oppressive taxation without representation. The dream exists only on the fringes. Outside the dusty cantenas it appeares a society in lockdown. That isnt libertarian but something closer to comicbook communism. I have trouble pinning the political system in star wars. It has changed several times as the movies have adapted to new audiances (the politics of american focus groups imho). For that reason it isnt important and we shouldnt draw many conclusions.
- krapp 10y ago
  The Empire is meant to be fascistic, basically Nazism In Space, in broad strokes, owing to the pulp science fantasy nature of Star Wars (originally envisioned as a Flash Gordon reboot.) Beyond that, it's impossible to say that Star Wars universe does or doesn't subscribe to any particular political ideology because it encompasses a galaxy's worth of planets with their own particular ideologies, to whatever degree the franchise realizes them. I don't know exactly what the Jedi and Sith are... other than the Jedi are supposed to be Good and the Sith are supposed to be Bad. The Jedi have some kind of quasi-ascetic warrior monk bureaucracy that reminds me of what little I understand of what the Samurai might have become during the Edo period. The Sith are apparently just violent sociopaths. Although you could say the same about Star Trek, if you didn't focus so much on the Federation - the Federation is more or less explicitly Gene Roddenberry's vision of a communist utopia, but it also has the Romulans (a fascist military dictatorship), the Ferengi (capitalists,) etc.
  - metaphorm 10y ago
    > I don't know exactly what the Jedi and Sith are Warrior Sages. The archetype is common in Eastern mythology. "The Force" is itself a Westernized mashup of several Eastern myth systems. It seems particularly closely connected to the mythology of China and Japan, with a thin veneer of some Manichaeism painted on top. This, of course, makes it a bit incoherent as the Eastern myth systems it is mainly inspired by are non-dualistic but the Light/Dark dualism (fundamentally incompatible with the Eastern stuff) really drives the plot in the series.
clort 10y ago
I'm not sure which Federation crew you are talking about (and note, I haven't watched any Star Trek universe shows for a long time) but I'm pretty sure that in DS9 when there were some federation crew visiting, they were given money from the replicator and amusedly told to not tell the Ferengi how it came about.
tnecniv 10y ago
> And, in DS9, back on Earth, Sisko's father makes honest-to-goodness actual food, while Jean-Luc has a vineyard If I recall, it's implied that they work those jobs out of love and don't actually make money, but my question is how they determine who owns the physical property the businesses are on.

sandworm101 10y ago

Fever dream, but with oppressive taxation without representation. The dream exists only on the fringes. Outside the dusty cantenas it appeares a society in lockdown. That isnt libertarian but something closer to comicbook communism. I have trouble pinning the political system in star wars. It has changed several times as the movies have adapted to new audiances (the politics of american focus groups imho). For that reason it isnt important and we shouldnt draw many conclusions.

krapp 10y ago
The Empire is meant to be fascistic, basically Nazism In Space, in broad strokes, owing to the pulp science fantasy nature of Star Wars (originally envisioned as a Flash Gordon reboot.) Beyond that, it's impossible to say that Star Wars universe does or doesn't subscribe to any particular political ideology because it encompasses a galaxy's worth of planets with their own particular ideologies, to whatever degree the franchise realizes them. I don't know exactly what the Jedi and Sith are... other than the Jedi are supposed to be Good and the Sith are supposed to be Bad. The Jedi have some kind of quasi-ascetic warrior monk bureaucracy that reminds me of what little I understand of what the Samurai might have become during the Edo period. The Sith are apparently just violent sociopaths. Although you could say the same about Star Trek, if you didn't focus so much on the Federation - the Federation is more or less explicitly Gene Roddenberry's vision of a communist utopia, but it also has the Romulans (a fascist military dictatorship), the Ferengi (capitalists,) etc.
- metaphorm 10y ago
  > I don't know exactly what the Jedi and Sith are Warrior Sages. The archetype is common in Eastern mythology. "The Force" is itself a Westernized mashup of several Eastern myth systems. It seems particularly closely connected to the mythology of China and Japan, with a thin veneer of some Manichaeism painted on top. This, of course, makes it a bit incoherent as the Eastern myth systems it is mainly inspired by are non-dualistic but the Light/Dark dualism (fundamentally incompatible with the Eastern stuff) really drives the plot in the series.

clort 10y ago

I'm not sure which Federation crew you are talking about (and note, I haven't watched any Star Trek universe shows for a long time) but I'm pretty sure that in DS9 when there were some federation crew visiting, they were given money from the replicator and amusedly told to not tell the Ferengi how it came about.

tnecniv 10y ago

> And, in DS9, back on Earth, Sisko's father makes honest-to-goodness actual food, while Jean-Luc has a vineyard If I recall, it's implied that they work those jobs out of love and don't actually make money, but my question is how they determine who owns the physical property the businesses are on.