Why does the Alliance have currency by Cazaril

FIREFLY UNIVERSE

Why does the Alliance have currency

POSTED BY: CAZARIL
UPDATED: Saturday, February 13, 2010 07:39
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Friday, January 22, 2010 4:05 PM

I was just watching "The Train Job" and it hit me...

Why does the Alliance even have currency?

Now I'm not talking about money, I'm talking currency. The metal and paper you put in your pocket, with neat designs on it, that your government says has a certain value.

Think about your own habits... How often do you actually carry/use currency? If you are like most, you use plastic (whether debit or credit) far more often. Walmart, gas, groceries, whatever.. Out comes the plastic. Oh sure, some smaller stores, maybe at a restaurant for the tip, or when you travel (just in case)..

Then their is the use of checks (an individually backed currency). Even the use of these are becoming rarer, as most people mostly use checks to pay bills, which is more frequently now being done electronically online.

And this is only 50+ years after plastic came out, and even less since any 12 year old could have one.

Now fast forward an extra 500 years, and the mighty Alliance controls the core worlds. Computers have proven their ability to control the flow of money for centuries. Plus, as governments are quick to realize, computers leave a trail that can be used to monitor activity (and the Alliance is all about control). Then there exists the financial burden of actually producing currency (design, production, replacement, man hours dealing with it, anti-counterfeiting techniques, etc), which is an expense that who's money could be spent elsewhere. So why bother?

Now I get the Border and Rim Worlds having a currency, and I like the idea of it being made from precious metals. It make sense. Technology is spotty, so links to the Alliance banking system may, or may not exist (Oh, maybe a couple of places in each town have a link to the Coretex, but not all of them). So I have no problem with the coins Mal gets paid with when he does a job.

My problem comes from the wads of cash that Mal, and his crew, always seem to be trying to give to/back to Niska (Both "The Train Job" and "War Stories").

An aside to this would be local currencies and exchange rates, but that is a whole other topic, and one I'm not interested in at the moment.

So can anyone explain to me, why the Alliance even bothers to produce a currency? Because I just can't come up with a good one.

Caz

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Saturday, January 23, 2010 7:10 PM

JEWELSTAITEFAN

Hint #1: Mal & Co are smugglers, theives, into cashy money, coin, platimuns. Niska a master criminal, also trades or barters in similar circles. Everybody in Mal's world (other than Inara, pre-cleric Book, and pre-Institute River & Simon) is the same.

Alliance controls the core worlds, and perhaps that is cashless if the denizens are sufficiently cowed.

In order to interact with the Border Worlds, Rim worlds, the Independents, they must have a system of currency which real people will accept as legal tender for purposes of trade, barter, exchange.
Mal and Zoe explain in the Pilot that Alliance drops off colonists with a blanket, hatchet, sometimes a herd. Note no mention of a computer, nor a reliable power supply to power it, nor a Cortex nexus or node.

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Sunday, January 24, 2010 7:05 AM

NEWOLDBROWNCOAT

Classic argument also is that any criminal transaction wants to be in cash- it's harder to trace. Use plastic or the checkbook, and you've just given the government a record of your criminal transaction.

Robert Heinlein also points out in a couple of his books, that bribery of government officers is not going to go away, and that must be done in cash. Can you imagine that Democrat Congressman with a check for $90,000 in his freezer?

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Thursday, February 11, 2010 10:36 PM

GILDEDMUSE

I don't know how common interplanetary travel is in the 'verse, but we know that signals are not instantaneous by any means. Between planets and their moons, sure, all electronic actions would pass through smooth as gravy, but jump a few planets over or hitchhiker to another system all together and suddenly you're looking at a much longer delay every time you want to 'talk' to your bank account. In cases like that, I imagine that having some physical cash in hand makes things easier for everyone involved.

Besides, if the government is so entwined with the Blue Sun Corporation as is implied, then I'm sure that is incentive to keep cash around. Since the further and further you get for the core the less technology seems to have taken root, if the Alliance didn't have state recognized currency that would mean every backwater moon without access to the latest banking computers would either have to rely on trade or make up their own coin, one that would probably be useless outside of that small system. You have a planet with cash that isn't recognized and that might just make it worthless. What is Blue Sun going to do with worthless money? It takes away potential customers, and from what little we saw there were traces of Blue Sun all over the 'verse - they weren't too picky about straying too far from the core.

So I imagine the Alliance has plenty of incentive to keep printing out currency. Physical money means immediate payment, so it's easier for traveling. People living on the border worlds are less likely to have the technology needed to bank like the core planets, but can still take part in the alliance's economy. Plus, overall, I'd bet that they're more likely to trust currency out there than just take someone's word for it.

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Thursday, February 11, 2010 11:54 PM

FILLYGIRL

Operative: "Its worse than you know..." Mal: "It usually is."

I agree with what has been posted, the Alliance doesn't control everything or every world. So other worlds could have 'cash' or 'coin', we understand that 'payment' is necessary in all worlds. Also consiter(sp) there will be 'hackers' in the future just like now. There could be people who 'collect' bills & coins, like the Lassiter was collected.
And, 'we' the viewer can 'relate' to it, sometimes its called 'artistic license.' JMHO

Chaplain of the 76th Independant Battalion

Do not bother dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

...it's worse than you know...Operative
...it usually is.....Mal

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Friday, February 12, 2010 6:53 AM

STORYMARK

Personally, I still mainly use cash. And in a frontier-like society that is as spread out as what we saw on Firefly, where the tech available seemed to vary greatly from one place to the next, it seems a strictly electronic system would be troublesome.

"I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him."

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Saturday, February 13, 2010 7:39 AM

NCBROWNCOAT

I work at a bank and you don't realize how many people still come in on Fridays with their paycheck and exchange a piece of paper for cashy money.

This is despite an effort by my and every other bank to get paychecks done by electronic means...much lower cost in the actual handling and people cost.

So I do see the need for cashy money. Easier for those without electronics or want it untraceable.

Plus it's more dramatic to hand over a bag of coin than look at 2 people punch numbers into a terminal.

http://fireflyfaninnc.livejournal.com/

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