Scott Sellsworth ([email removed]) raises some good point
in his article, but I think some are inaccurate. I aim to provide counter-
examples on our planet.
First, he suggests that high tech levels wouldn't want to trade with low
tech levels. This is simply not true. The USA is probably two TL's higher
than several African nations which we are more than happy to trade with.
Low TL worlds provide: 1) cheap raw materials, and 2) cheap labor. When
a country gets a higher standard of living, the comparable cost one has
to pay people to work goes up. Labor is dirt cheap in, say, Zaire but
expensive in the US. It's even more expensive where the standard of living
is higher, like Beverly Hills. A TL 15 fast food restaraunt with *live*
workers in it (rather than automation) would be incredibly expensive to
operate.
Also, he asks why don't TL 15 starports put out TL 12 ships which should
be a heckuva lot cheaper. I don't know a good answer to this, but in the
"real world" I could ask why doesn't McDonnel/Douglass still make the
DC 3? I wold say for the same reason that merchant lines buy TL 15 rather
than TL 12 ships. What the system doesn't explicitly say (but probably
should) is that if one has the money, the higher tech ship will almost
always provide a return on investment. Part of this should be due to
the fact that as TL goes up, Jump Drive space and maybe fuel requirement
should go down. Scott brings this up in his letter; a good point.
When dealing with complicated socio/economic questions I find the most
productive thing to do is to compare the Traveller situation with a similar
situation (if one exists) on Earth. Last year's technology is usually
plentiful and cheap. Earlier technology is usually not available. Lower
tech worlds *will* have high tech equipment if they trade with High tech
worlds, but they can't produce it themselves. People in "3rd world"
countries can still have Corvette's, but the country doesn't have the
TL to produce them (or maintain them.)
Hope this helps some people. Let's keep up the good discussion on
economics in the Trav/MT universe.