Re: [OT] [HIST] Paymasters of 2183

> Do you get paid for downtime? Time dilation
> would surely wreck your life back on any planet,
> so you'd think there would be some sort of
> premium, but paying the troopie for every
> minute of their sleep makes for a high cost per
> active minute....

Well, if you're paying them the full 4Cr per hour as if they were
awake, then yes.  If you're paying them .04Cr/hr, it's not as bad.

> Correspondingly, you'd think it would make you
> VERY close with your comrades on ship.

Why?  You're all frozen.  You're only bonding if you're doing things
together.

> Also, what useful way is there to pay soldiers
> like this? You don't load the ship up with
> money,

It's paper.  A million dollars in $100 bills takes up something like
3.5 cubic feet, if I recall correctly (not that I've had the chance to
verify that empirically).  $1M is going to be at least 300 months'
worth of salary--say 50 guys for six months.  If you've got a cruiser
that 50 guys can live in for 6 months, presumably it'll have an extra
3.5 cubic feet to spare.
And that's assuming their full salary is payable as cash.  I'd only
pay them 10-20% during the cruise.
That's also assuming you keep it in hundreds.  If the ship keeps it as
thousands and makes change wholesale at a local bank, then you can
keep it in a shoebox.  A well guarded shoebox, of course.

> but presumably you need enough if
> they get liberty anywhere to let them spend
> some. Soldiers like to get paid. Maybe it is all
> electronic... but if speed of money movement is
> limited to speed of ship movement, then
> interesting issues arise.

If for some reason you need this (eg you're not paying for trifles
like salaries, but something expensive), you make a deposit with Han
Bank of Alarish and they give you a one-time-only key.	Use that key
to withdraw your funds at any branch of Han Bank, or any other bank
that has agreements in place.  If you don't withdraw the full amount,
they give you another one-time-only key for the amount that's left.
  You could also use a stored-value card but that might be a little
too easy to hack.