Resource Distribution

As shown in the posts on Colonial development , there are many different ways of attaining what it is you or your country want. Some of these are by ethical means while others, not so ethical.

To build an economy in a colonial society with an un-breathable atmosphere there also needs to be an ethical approach to both wealth and resource distribution. The need to ensure that no person is without the necessities of life will require a different type of economy, currency and banking system. The human value systems will also need a re-write.

The challenges to this are twofold:

a. The first is that in the beginning and probably for the first 100 years or more, an off-world colony will rely heavily on Earth based resources and a labor force that will need to be paid for in Earth currencies The labor force will not initially be bringing their families with them as the infrastructure to support the additional people will not yet exist. This then, requires that an Earth based income be provided to the laborer to support their family Earth side.

b. The second part of this is the colonial based economy, currency and banking system. A person resident in a colony will require, in addition to their Earth side pay cheque, a colonial side pay cheque.

Initially, workers and other personnel will be brought off-world at the expense of the hiring government or business. All expenses will be paid by the government or business and personnel will have very little creature comforts available to them. 

Anyone who has worked a corporate job site knows from experience that in those environments it’s the little things that make life livable. Some people smoke, or drink, or gamble, or want other means of distraction from the daily grind of remote living. This costs money and is usually not paid for by the company, so, an onsite monetary system is required. 

Fiat money will be next to impossible to make off-world so if physical money is to be used, it will be made on Earth and transported off-world. The cost of that shipping will undoubtedly cause some devaluation of the currency due to the as yet, exorbitant costs of lifting one pound of payload into space. A 500 sheet pack of standard printer paper for example, weighs around 5.2 pounds. At the current NASA cost of $20,000 / pound that means a pack of printed paper money will costs over $100,000 to send off-world. (And you thought parcel post was expensive)

Coin would obviously be much more expensive.

Workers with families back home need to be paid, but colonists staying off-world could survive with a different valuation system. Fortunately, the colonial model addresses this very well. It provides a framework for Earth and off-world income as well as payment for necessary Earth resources to be bought and paid for. 

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