Scrapyard Station: Capitalism
Mar. 15th, 2025 06:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feotakahariIt’s overgeneralizing a bit to say the Coalition is capitalist. It’s more that the capitalists get their grubby hands all over the rest of the alliance.
Not a lot of people go around giving technology to previously uncontacted worlds. Some people even hold to a “prime directive” that says those worlds should be left alone. Meanwhile, the capitalists go “We have technology beyond your wildest dreams, you have untapped mineral resources, let’s make a deal.” And you’re not gonna say no to, e.g., cancer cures. Not even when the resources run low and the capitalists start demanding your labor instead.
Not a lot of people go around setting up FTL links between colonies. It’s difficult, specialized, and horrendously expensive, and it comes with a host of limitations even once you get a link up and running. But Nomads can use hyperspace instead of FTL links, and wouldn’t you know it, a large majority of Nomad governments are capitalist. If you want to know what’s going on in the galaxy, you’d better pay up.
Not a lot of people want to fight godlike aliens that can enslave your mind and warp your body. But the Parasites are indiscriminate about what planets they attack, and the military forces capable of resisting mind control consist of largely-capitalist races like Nomads and Tinkers. Government-backed mercenaries won’t outright refuse to defend your planet—no one wants to give the Parasites another staging ground for further invasions—but they’ll park their warships in orbit afterwards and “politely” insist you pay up.
The Scholars set up a parallel system to give technology to other worlds before capitalists get to them. The Pure fight the Parasites directly, not giving or receiving aid from mercenaries. The Builders developed anti-capitalist terror groups. We all cope in our own ways.
Not a lot of people go around giving technology to previously uncontacted worlds. Some people even hold to a “prime directive” that says those worlds should be left alone. Meanwhile, the capitalists go “We have technology beyond your wildest dreams, you have untapped mineral resources, let’s make a deal.” And you’re not gonna say no to, e.g., cancer cures. Not even when the resources run low and the capitalists start demanding your labor instead.
Not a lot of people go around setting up FTL links between colonies. It’s difficult, specialized, and horrendously expensive, and it comes with a host of limitations even once you get a link up and running. But Nomads can use hyperspace instead of FTL links, and wouldn’t you know it, a large majority of Nomad governments are capitalist. If you want to know what’s going on in the galaxy, you’d better pay up.
Not a lot of people want to fight godlike aliens that can enslave your mind and warp your body. But the Parasites are indiscriminate about what planets they attack, and the military forces capable of resisting mind control consist of largely-capitalist races like Nomads and Tinkers. Government-backed mercenaries won’t outright refuse to defend your planet—no one wants to give the Parasites another staging ground for further invasions—but they’ll park their warships in orbit afterwards and “politely” insist you pay up.
The Scholars set up a parallel system to give technology to other worlds before capitalists get to them. The Pure fight the Parasites directly, not giving or receiving aid from mercenaries. The Builders developed anti-capitalist terror groups. We all cope in our own ways.
