Re: [OT] [HIST] Paymasters of 2183

adrian.johnson@sympatico.ca wrote:

> To try to deal with this, the military created a "resort world", the
> location of which was more secret than that of Earth, where the fleet
could
> have R&R, refitting, etc.  That place was scaled to the
> super-rich-soldiers-on-leave, so everything was fantastically
expensive.
> People would go get a menial job there (civilians) for a few years,
and
> then head back to their original world wealthy.  They recognized that
it
> would be very unbalancing to the economy if all of a sudden the war
ended,
> and they had a large number of super-wealthy ex-soldiers descend on
the
> regular economy.

This is only a problem if the returning soldiers can spend their money
outside
of the economy, or if the paymasters have insufficient liquidity.  To
insure
this, returning troops are issued bonds that amortise their backpay over
their
remaining expected lifespan.  The NAC does not need to fleece its
troopers, it
need only make it difficult for the troopers to spend the money outside
of the
NAC.  The money circulates while the soldiers are away, and it keeps
circulating when it gets spent by the troops.  Therefore, an influx of
wealth
redistributors is not a bad thing.

The only damage is if the troopers are paid in coin, and it is piled up
in