Re: Economic meltdowns in SF

<Mark_Reichert@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message 
news:eb4c2bf9-1c5d-46c9-a523-3afcb796aaa6@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>I know I should be avoiding reality here, but given the implications
> of Bear Stearns if the other investment banks are just as ridiculously
> leveraged, I was wondering what SF stories have which SF stories have
> had economic bad times as background and which have actually dealt
> with the economics as subject material.

    Mack Reynolds, _Tomorrow Might Be Different_.

    A coup puts into power a new regime in the Soviet Union.  They proceed

to reorganize the country on the basis of democratic control of the means
of 
production and distribution.  This means they can start providing goods at

their actual cost of production.  As a result, they can easily undersell
the 
capitalist economies.  Much economic hysteria occurs.

    Reynolds gave examples of this sort of behavior throughout his work,
and 
the kindest thing I can say is that he couldn't tell the difference
between 
"markup" and "profit".  There are costs of distribution that are not 
profit-taking by bloated middlemen.


    In another story, which title I have forgotten, a Secret Service
officer 
is called in to investigate a counterfeiting case; two seemingly real 
fifty-dollar bills with the same serial number.  He traces them back to a 
scientist who has invented a duplicator.  The man brags that he can defeat

any anti-counterfeiting measure, and that he is faking currency because
the 
real value of an economic exchange is being able to trust the other guy. 
The Secret Service agent decides the man can't be allowed go to on trial
and 
spread this doctrine, and shoots him.  How he managed to get away with 
shooting an unarmed man in the back -- there is a pretense at an
explanation 
but it seems unlikely it would stand up under investigation -- is, of 
course, not mentioned.


    Reynolds had some outre ideas about economics and history.  Apparently

his favorite -- I saw it mentioned in more than one story --- was his
proof 
of the degree to which Big Business controled the world.  The German army 
didn't shell the French-owned steel mills in the Ruhr.

    And nobody -- not John W. Campbell, not any of the letter-writers to 
_Analog_, not anyone he ever met at a convention or corresponded with in a

fanzine -- nobody ever ever pointed out to him that the Ruhr was in
Germany, 
so all the Germans had to do to get control of the "French-owned steel 
mills" was send in a policeman with a notice from the Custodian of Enemy 
Property informing them that the plant was confiscated for the duration,
get 
back to work, have a nice day.

        Joseph T Major