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89 comments on Interesting Economics

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Don Sailorman on July 1, 2006 - 8:32pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Hold on! Valentine Michael Smith was bowled over with delight when first he grokked money. Martians did not have money, you may recall.

Also, many of Heinlein's heroes were rich, e.g. D.D. Harriman in "Man Who Sold the Moon."

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R W Reactionairy on July 1, 2006 - 8:53pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Smith also kept a bowl of the stuff by the door of the nest for use out in the rest of the world. In addition, money just about killed him before he had a chance to grok much of anything about humans.

Beyond this Horizon included a description of a monetary system that I believe you might endorse -- basically non debt based / non commodity based system but with the supply on auto pilot. Citizens received a periodic "dividend" [I believe that was RAH's terminology]basically for being alive to match the money supply with the growth in the economy. The Man from the Past who had at one time sold South American bonds for a living had a very hard time with this because "money has to be based on something." Back to my point ... I am not really against fiat currency as long as the quanity is not being gamed to reward, punish, and shift wealth and facilitate Government theft and other bad behaviors.

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Mike Hearn on July 2, 2006 - 6:18am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
This proposal is known outside the fictional world as a "basic citizens income":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guaranteed_minimum_income

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Don Sailorman on July 2, 2006 - 11:35am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
"Beyond This Horizon" is one of my favorites of Heinlein novels.

RAH was decades ahead of his time. Look at the issues dealt with in "Beyond this Horizon," e.g. in regard to the genetic modifications of humans. Who else in 1943 was seriously worried about this?

My ambition (possibly delusional) is to write young-adult science fiction novels that will be almost as good as Heinlein's. So far I have two volumes of my future history done and have plotted out the third volume.

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R W Reactionairy on July 2, 2006 - 3:14pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Go for it Don. You obviously write well. It would be interesting to see how your style translates into fiction. There is a niche that has not been saturated by any measure [the youth will read when something catches their interests -- witness J.K. Rowlings]. BTW, I didn't read any of RAH's young adult novels until after I had read Stranger in a Strange Land circa 1972 so depending on what you mean by "young adult" the audiance is certainly not limited to the very young. :-)
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Don Sailorman on July 2, 2006 - 6:22pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
If you're looking for some good summer reading, just check out amazon.com and look for inexpensive paperback or hardcover Heinleins. Get about thirty of them, reread or read them for the first time and relive your youth!

The first Heinlein I read was "Rocket Ship Galileo" back in '49. Some of his stuff has been published posthumously.

One of the best young-adult Heinlein's was "The Rolling Stones," and "Farmer in the Sky" was also excellent. Come to think of it, I have not reread "Rocket Ship Galileo" for decades--bunch of teenage boys along with their mentor build an atomic powered rocket and go to the moon. The film "Destination Moon" was very loosely based on "Rocket Ship Galileo."

"Have Space Suit, Will Travel" is also a lot of fun to read.

Frequently I reread books that were my favorites as a child and a teenage--invariably they are as good or better than I had remembered. Why read crappy new books when some of the old ones are so very much better?

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R W Reactionairy on July 2, 2006 - 7:04pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
In a post a while back, you commented on admiring the economics lessons of The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and the Rolling Stones. I commented that the sustainablity aspects of the former were obvious, and asked you if the the lessons of the Rolling Stones were from you perspective related to selling used bicyles or perhaps the merits of writing space opera [ignoring asteroid mining intentionally as being too straight forward]. You did not answer, but I think that I can infer from this exchange that your comment related at least in part to writing space opera. :-)

I think I have read just about all of RAH's novels and compliations except for Farmer in the Sky. Something to look forward to.

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Don Sailorman on July 2, 2006 - 8:59pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Some of his notebooks from the thirties and forties were published a couple of years ago--very interesting reading.

Ah yes, much better to reread Heinlein than look at the low quality of books on best seller lists.

My motto: Whenever a new book comes out, read an old one.
Same for films. Of the great films, 90% were made before, say 1975.

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odograph on July 3, 2006 - 8:27am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
I read about half of this book before taking it back to the library:

The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril

It was actually pretty good.  Would you believe a book whose characters are all "pulp" authors (shadow, doc savage, etc.) heading for a mystery.  A lot of history of the pulps here ... and would you believe L. Ron Hubbard as a the protagonist?

Funny, with some (apparently true) history, mixed into the story.

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Don Sailorman on July 2, 2006 - 9:03pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
In "Rolling Stones" I especially liked the twin brothers' scheme to make moonshine and sell it to the asteroid miners.

Also, I really identify with Hazel Stone, an oldster after my own heart, though I question the wisdom of loading my handgun with gum drops.

Do I hoard copper tubing?

You bet. Heckuva good investment no matter what.

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