genny-grotesque
51 posts
Latest Posts by genny-grotesque
Anyone else thinking about how odd the hermitcraft economy is?
in season 9 they had a minor economic recession after the diamond ore war because there were far too many diamonds in circulation making them (hypothetically) worth less than normal and ren stepped in as the king and did what has been done in the midst of a lot of irl economic depressions; he created a government so they could employ the policy of Keynesian economics (basically more gov't intervention to stabilize the economy, it mostly worked in 1930's japan!), he took control of diamonds and even introduced a new currency, royal emeralds (much like Germany after WW1! they had some hyperinflation because of the war reparations they had to pay and the gov't not understanding that printing more money makes the money worth less resulting in the mark [currency] being so worthless they started burning it because they couldn't afford wood for fires. a new gov't came into power and they replaced the mark with rentenmarks which did a lot of fixificating for the economy). Ren's gov't also introduced a lot of gov't funded projects like the quests (the irl equivalent for this would be Roosevelt's New Deal which introduced policies/projects called the Alphabet Agencies (among other things) such as the AAA, CCC, TVA (do you see why they're called the alphabet agencies?) that would adjust the value of grain so farmers could start earning money for produce again and create work that would support a growing economy, projects like building roads and bridges)
so basically, all the policies ren's government introduced were very logically sound and worked in real life to fix the economy (except that irl the Great Depression only fully ended because WW2 started-), the issue is that hermitcraft is not real life and hermits do not behave like real people, they behave like hermits.
lets start with the hermitcraft economy. unlike the real economy, hermits rarely adjust prices according to how many diamonds are "in circulation". i say this despite the fact grian in a recent-ish episode says that "everything costs more this season because diamonds are more common". that can't be true because the caves and cliffs update literally made diamonds more difficult to acquire. I will circle back to this point made by grian later
hermits not adjusting prices by server-wide abundance of diamonds (because they cant really know how much anyone has, much less the total amount of diamonds in circulation, they just know who has a lot and who is broke) means that more diamonds doesn't make them worth less like it did with German marks, it just means hermits have more expendable currency and can spend more money and less time gathering materials for projects. It is also notable that diamonds are constantly being added and taken out of circulation because they're an actual useful currency rather than real life currencies which are symbolic slips of paper. diamonds can be used for armour and tools and it can be acquired by mining. so because of how hermits spend money, taking diamonds out of the economy in s9 did nothing but make them poor and angry at the government. the hermitcraft economy is actually stronger with more diamonds in circulation and is worsened by gov't intervention.
so already the use of real life strategies is utterly useless in hermitcraft economy but there are a few other reasons as well
the hermits tendency to resist government as well as the flawed and greedy government itself are a couple but also the fact that all the hermits are self employed (in real life but also in universe). they own and stock their own shops meaning all profits are more or less direct; its not passed through hands of big corporations so the person producing the product gets mere cents. the hermits are essentially small business owners (which becomes a bit of a problem come season 10 but we're still talking about season 9). The important part is the self employment. the season 9 gov't introduces the quests which mimic and echo real life government funded projects but because they're all employed and the quests gave small amounts of diamonds back, they did very little for the hermits
I'm sure theres more to say but i think its time to move on to the very interesting season 10 economy
if you've missed it you must be living under a rock but hermits are all using permits this season meaning only one shop in the shopping district is selling any given item/material and as a result of this prices have gone sky high. at one point a single stack of mangrove logs cost 7 diamonds when in previous seasons you could get at least 1 stack of wood for 1 diamond if not more
So what is causing this economic depression and hyperinflation?
well, circling back to the point grian made about resources costing more because of abundance of diamonds, I would think it actually costs more because of the permits.
grian thinks the diamond prices are fair because he has middle of the road permits (and is one of the hermits who designed their shopping district, permit and economic system this season so he's biased), there is enough demand to keep him afloat when he's stocked but its nothing people are clamouring for and buying him out. on the other hand, joel made a lot of shops that no one shops at because his objectively weighted permits have not been selling as well as they anticipated when making the permits (also some people like etho and pearl have additional income from their not as fabulous permits because they've made a pay to play game to go with it) and finally there are hermits like mumbo whose gold, iron and item frame shops were constantly getting bought out so he was frustrated with trying to restock despite getting lots of profit
(another interesting dynamic to think about is permits like cleo's book permit which lost value as the season went on because everyone needed books early on but now that they're all playing late game Minecraft, everyone is pretty stocked up and buying from cleo less often)
Basically, grian is satisfied with the pricing because he's middle class and couldn't afford it if they were more expensive but appreciates not being constantly out of stock, joel is unsatisfied because he is lower class and never has enough expendable currency to fund his projects because materials are too expensive and his permits aren't worth enough to sell them for more, and mumbo is unsatisfied because he is higher class and is constantly out of stock because his materials sell out too often and he wants to sell them for more to stay in stock more (classic supply and demand, he doesn't want to stock them as often making the supply lower and the demand proportionally higher making them worth more and therefore more expensive)
the reason i say the permits are to blame for the high prices is because they cause the responsibility of constantly stocking something to fall on one person (in past seasons, if one persons sandstone shop was out of stock you could go check someone else's sandstone shop). the threat of taking the permit away if they arent stocked along with the difficulty of constantly stocking some of these materials raises the cost.
a great example of this is skizzleman because his mangrove and cherry wood shop was one of the first shops to be built in the shopping district, meaning he somewhat set the prices this season. now, mangrove and cherry are both difficult trees to harvest because of their unconventional shapes and the fact that they are more recent additions (and skizz's stubborn desire to design his own farms...) so because of the time required to gather them the prices already were hitched up. add that to the fact that they are trying to constantly be in stock and therefore low prices that allow hermits to completely buy out the shops are unfavourable, and you get sky rocket-ing prices. (it is also difficult because skizz had no prior experience with hermitcraft pricing)
in conclusion... hermitcraft needs a laissez-faire economy (f. a. hayek) to function and not go into economic depression. Between the nature of the diamond currency, hermits' tendency to rebel against governments, the way they use the concept of supply and demand to price their goods, and the restrictions permits put on supplying products, hermits have proven that extensive structure and government intervention have not improved economic wellbeing the way that it does in real life
thus, hermits do not behave like regular humans, they operate on fae laws of its funny so lets do it and therefore must be governed as such (aka not governed), thank you for coming to my ted talk
guessing etho’s age 🤔
- smallishbeans s10 ep8 of hermitcraft
Do you think we're together in every universe? but with stargoth (my first animation)
love it when I start getting "based on your likes" terf bullshit every few posts and I have to scramble back through my recent likes to figure out what innocuous meme poisoned the well
sk8 the infinity is so funny bc when she said "piggyback to get ice cream at the store!" i thought reki and langa were going to carry the kids 😭 NOT each other 😭 lmfao this show is so ridiculous
Fall Out Boy: What if we had a figure of speech... but changed it slightly
Me: Oh yeah that's the good shit
california by chappell roan gives damian vibes. does anyone see the vision.
it is my duty, as someone who ships a rarepair, to draw shitty fanart based on memes about them
based on this:
the worst part abt writing is the fact that i want so desperately to describe all their cute little outfits but it ALWAYS ENDS up sounding so ebony darkness dementia raven way
such a tragedy that the first (canon) straight ship im genuinely invested in is so unpopular :/ n e ways daminika solos ur fav 🗣🗣🗣🗣💪💪💪💪
oh my god i need to catch up with mha. whats happening to my boys.
Ohhhh, I just feel something snapped inside. Babies 😭😭😭😭😭
i know what you are...
maybe its the lesbian in me but i think talia al ghul and catwoman should forget bruce and fuck each other
LIKE?????
maybe its the lesbian in me but i think talia al ghul and catwoman should forget bruce and fuck each other
LIKE?????
how are yall so up to date on batman comics ⁉️
the way i live
happy mania monday everyone
is it really a successful trip to the pool if you dont inhale a gallon of pool water?
toh x omori
combining my 2 favorite fandoms because why not
twitter historically sucks but man this is a banger of a tweet
Batman fun fact! Did you know that Scarecrow’s toxin doesn’t always cause fear? Sometimes it does the opposite! In Detective Comics #571, he wields a variant that completely inhibits the biochemical fear response, preventing people from feeling any concern for themselves or using basic common sense. He runs a racket administering it to star athletes, who take huge risks and get badly injured. Then they’re willing to cough up a lot for an antidote. Batman and Robin - here Jason Todd - catch on, but Bruce is dosed with the reverse fear toxin; since his intelligence is his greatest strength, being too overconfident and reckless to think twice about anything makes him his own worst enemy.
This premise was adapted in the Batman: The Animated Series episode “Never Fear”. There we see that with no fear of losing his moral integrity, Bruce becomes cold and merciless to criminals. Robin - here Tim Drake - has to catch somebody he leaves to fall off a building, tie him up to stop him endangering himself and others and give him the antidote to prevent him murdering Scarecrow.
But in the comic book, Jason is kidnapped by Scarecrow. (He gets gassed, and hallucinates Bruce dying and telling him that it was his fault.) He isn’t around to keep Bruce in check as he goes to rescue him through a series of death traps that he can’t resist cutting it as close as possible in. So how does Bruce not go off the deep end? How does he not lose sight of what’s important? Not lose himself?
Because even a drug designed to shut down stress at the most fundamental level can’t overpower his true worst fear. The Dark Knight might feel fearless…
but a parent never is.
my mom.
sliding scale of posts about Jesus being a carpenter who was nailed to a cross
when they love trans women so much they call them men and invalidate a lesbian's sexuality by calling them a bisexual
terf lesbians shut the fuck up and stop acting like you speak for the entire community.
ugly cunts
i know that gen fic tend to be synonymous with found family/friendship fic around here but i think we as people should explore antagonistic platonic relationship such as:
“we were childhood friends and i know all about you that’s why i hate you now”
mentor and protege who think they know better than the other and refuse to compromise
neighbors trying to one up another
green tea bitch is a trope where characters pretend to be all sweet and loving but is secretly a bitch and i think those characters should be each other’s rivals
speaking of rivals yes they respect each other but ONLY regarding the thing they’re competing about, everything else is a disappointment
i know that gen fic tend to be synonymous with found family/friendship fic around here but i think we as people should explore antagonistic platonic relationship such as:
“we were childhood friends and i know all about you that’s why i hate you now”
mentor and protege who think they know better than the other and refuse to compromise
neighbors trying to one up another
green tea bitch is a trope where characters pretend to be all sweet and loving but is secretly a bitch and i think those characters should be each other’s rivals
speaking of rivals yes they respect each other but ONLY regarding the thing they’re competing about, everything else is a disappointment