Cold, Cold War

Despite concerns over the United Municipalities of North America possibly being too independent for this sort of thing, the Swiss government drafts a mutual defense treaty and sends it to the office of Generalissimo Roald. The terms are simple:

Quote :

In order to promote the mutual security of our nations, if any foreign power makes an attack on the United Municipalities of North America, the Confederated Empire of Greater Switzerland will come to its aid. If any foreign power makes an attack on the Confederated Empire of Greater Switzerland, the United Municipalities of North America will come to its aid. Those terms apply only if the foreign power is engaging in an unprovoked attack. If that is not the case, then there is no obligation to defend the opposite signer of this treaty.

In addition, in order to promote the prosperity and economic welfare of our nations, this treaty guarantees the right of unrestricted trade between citizens of the United Municipalities of North America and the Confederated Empire of Greater Switzerland, with tariffs needed to fund the government not to exceed one percent of the price of goods and the right of the respective governments to regulate trade within their territories unaffected.

Because some more charismatic members of Parliament made the case that New Vegas is not totally lost, a reduced version of the treaty is sent to New Vegas.

Quote :

In order to promote the prosperity and economic welfare of our nations, this treaty guarantees the right of unrestricted trade between citizens of the Free Economic Zone of New Vegas and the Confederated Empire of Greater Switzerland, with tariffs needed to fund the government not to exceed one percent of the price of goods and the right of the respective governments to regulate trade within their territories unaffected.

Although in most cases Roald (and by extension the UMNA) would be quick to decline such a treaty, the recent instability in the region and the mutual defense pact between A&A, New Vegas, and the Legion causes him to do otherwise. After some deliberation and discussion with his advisers and generals, he decides to reply briefly that yes, the UMNA would be willing to make such an agreement. Some question him for taking the issue into his own hands, however he simply says to those people that it is best for the UMNA, who go along with it grudgingly.

And it's strange how the balance of power can shift so easily. Despite constant assurances that the UMNA was never in danger, it is easy to understand how they could feel threatened. In any case, New Vegas responds favorably to the trade treaty. They also suggest the possibility of joining the mutual defense pact that's been created. It seems that they're not worried so much about any established nation, but rather the NCR pockets and any remaining Enclave showing up.

Encouraged by New Vegas' response to the treaty, they draft up a different version of the treaty sent to the UMNA and send it to New Vegas for approval.

Quote :

In order to promote the mutual security of our nations, if any foreign power makes an attack on the Free Economic Zone of New Vegas, the Confederated Empire of Greater Switzerland will come to its aid. If any foreign power makes an attack on the Confederated Empire of Greater Switzerland, the Free Economic Zone of New Vegas will come to its aid. Those terms apply only if the foreign power is engaging in an unprovoked attack. If that is not the case, then there is no obligation to defend the opposite signer of this treaty.

An unofficial form is sent to New Vegas suggesting Swiss training of the New Vegas militia. A somewhat similar form is sent to the UMNA as well, but that is more of a cultural blending thing, as the UMNA can undoubtedly defend itself very very well.

The UMNA welcomes a few officers to come from the Swiss Empire. Not too many, just a few as many of the officers of the Municipal Defense Force are somewhat wary of the foreign influence on their troops.

In return, the Swiss Empire offers to take in some Municipal officers.

The UMNA accepts the offer and a few of the more open-minded and cosmopolitan officers go.

New Vegas isn't sure how they'll be able to get over there in, what they consider to be, an unlikely event that the Swiss are attacked and they make that clear, though they're more than willing to accept training of their militia.

A sizable number of non-commissioned officers are deployed to put the militia through two months of training. They are also given AK-47s, as that is probably what New Vegas can afford to issue to all of its troops with minimal training and maintenance. Still, the sergeants will drive it into the heads of those militiamen that just because you have automatic rifles does not mean you should just spray and pray. There is extensive use of the range, with stress shooting, too. They should actually do decently on that, being alive in the wasteland and all. They also spend a lot of time doing squad tactics. Usual basic training stuff.

(OOC: With stress shooting, you're forced to get your heartbeat up, which shoots your accuracy to Hell, and you're timed on speed and accuracy on a human shaped target.)

The militia is probably better trained than was expected with Christine and Tex being in charge. Both of them undergo the training as well.

That leaves Arcade to deal with the rest of the stuff. He does send the Swiss a message that he's concerned about the trade agreements. His arguments are fairly nonsensical making it clear he knows nothing about economics. He's worried about the Swiss undermining the New Vegas economy and replacing it with the Swiss economy. The fact that these concerns are being brought up now just proves that the Swiss were dealing with Tex before.

By the end of those two months, they still probably benefited from it, with at least increasing esprit de corps and knowledge of squad tactics.

Henry Gates comes over to talk to Arcade, with an economist from Vienna on call, who would be rather grouchy about being woken up in the middle of the night. Gates says to Arcade, wherever Arcade chooses to meet him, "Exactly what do you mean by us trying to undermine your economy?"

Arcade is being a loud mouth right now. "I mean you're coming in with all your high end stuff and charging ridiculous prices for them. It's hurting our people here. We're not rich." Oh boy, this can't be good. Where's Tex when ya need him to control Arcade? finishing up with that training and making sure everyone is up to date now. He'll probably be along shortly.

"What's happening in New Vegas is what is typical of relatively primitive economies with few capital goods. There is very high demand for goods but low supply. It's naturally going to take a while for prices to fall as more capital is built up and more competitors enter the field. It happened to us, too, and it took us more than a century to get to where we are today. It should probably be much faster for you, as New Vegas has the advantage of having very wealthy stores of capital goods waiting to flow in. Anyway, as far as I know, local producers of clothing haven't been driven out of business, either. They should be able to compete on price, considering how much less they sell things for." He starts looking at charts economists have made. "Interesting. Pay from our companies is three times higher than the average here. Is that a problem?" He genuinely looks puzzled.

Just as Arcade is about to respond with something scathing by the look of his expression, Tex shows up. He looks a little confused by the meeting. Arcade doesn't respond to the Swiss, but rather to Tex. "They're going to enslave us. Maybe not physically, but through money."

Tex just shakes his head and facepalms. He sighs. "Arcade, when it comes to medicine, you're one smart cookie. When it comes to economics, you're as dumb as a barrel of bricks."

Arcade mutters something, then sighs. "And you think you know better?"

Tex shakes his head again. "I don't know about economics either. No one around here does. If you'd have bothered to ask me about all this, I'd have told you to sit back and let them get an economist around here to explain things before you go accusing people and make a diplomatic incident regarding all this." He looks toward the Swiss. "How about this. You explain it to me, then I'll go bang him over the head with it for a while. Sorry 'bout this."

Gates gets that Austrian professor on video chat. He's in his pajamas and he's looking very grouchy from having been woken up at two in the morning.

"What do you need explained?" He says this in a thick Austrian accent, which is too silly to be typed out, so you'll just have to use your imagination.

Tex seems a little nervous about a video chat. Considering he probably talked to Mr. House that way, it's understandable. "Well, just explain economics on a level that anyone can understand. Especially how it relates to New Vegas." He looks at Arcade. "And you might want to go slow. No one around here understands even the basics." He looks back at the screen.

Arcade looks a bit grumpy himself. He's probably going to try and dismiss everything.

He starts going through the basics of supply and demand and moves on to more and more advanced stuff as he goes on, like capital goods theory. On the topic of why things are expensive, he makes note that in relatively primitive economies, goods are scarce, and that industrialization is painful. He makes the example that if the Swiss Empire suddenly suffered a catastrophe that caused almost all of its machines to disappear, prices of goods would skyrocket and people would starve. There simply would not be enough goods produced to satisfy everyone, so things will be expensive. It would basically be the situation New Vegas is in.

"But when firms increase and improve the equipment and machinery at the disposal of workers, their labor becomes more productive. Imagine someone using a forklift, as opposed to stacking pallets with his bare hands, or producing books with modern equipment as opposed to a 16th-century printing press. The amount of production the economy is capable of is thereby increased, often dramatically, and this increase in production puts corresponding downward pressure on consumer prices (relative to wage rates).

Now there is nothing natural or inevitable about the availability of this productivity-enhancing capital equipment. It does not fall out of the sky. It comes from the abstention from consumption from capitalists, and the allocation of the unconsumed resources in capital investment.

This process is the only way the general standard of living can possibly rise. Only in this way can the average laborer produce the tiniest fraction of what today he is accustomed to producing. It follows that only under these conditions can he expect to be able to consume the tiniest fraction of what today he is accustomed to consuming.

The increases in the productivity of labor that additional capital brings about push prices down relative to wage rates. By increasing the overall amount of output, such increases raise the ratio of consumers' goods to the supply of labor. Put more simply, improvements in the production process that lead to an increased supply of output make that output cheaper and easier for people to acquire.

That's why, in order to earn the money necessary to acquire a wide range of necessities, far fewer labor hours are necessary today than in the past. Thanks to capital investment, the Swiss economy is far more physically productive than it used to be, and therefore consumer goods exist in far greater abundance and are correspondingly less dear than before.

In 2230, for example, Swiss citizens had to work six minutes to earn the money that would buy them a loaf of bread; by 2280, that was down to just three and a half minutes. To be able to buy a dozen oranges in 2230 took 21 minutes of labor. It was only nine minutes by 2280. Paying for 100 kilowatts of electricity required two hours of labor in 2230, but only 14 minutes in 2280. Someone in 2180 would have had to work nine hours, as compared with four hours in 2230, and three hours in 2280, to earn the money to buy a pair of jeans. For a three-pound chicken, it was 160 minutes in 2180, 71 in 2230, and 24 in 2280.

The same process will happen in New Vegas. You also have the benefit of working with modern capital goods rather than the primitive goods we started off with. Just give it time."

(OOC: More or less copied and pasted from Anatomy of an Economic Ignoramus.)

Arcade doesn't look happy, but Tex, on the other hand, smiles. "Thank you. I'll make sure Arcade understands all this and doesn't disturb you again."

Arcade snorts. "I still say it's a form of slavery."

Tex looks at Arcade. "You know something, everything is a form of slavery to you, Arcade. Get over it."

Arcade actually looks a little shocked.

Tex continues. "New Vegas is not controlled by the NCR, the Enclave, or the Legion. We run this baby. You and I. You have got to listen to me at times. I may not understand what's best here, but I do know that accusing people of slavery isn't a good idea. You're damned lucky that the A&A representative that came here thought you were being funny. All of these people can flatten us, love. Cut it out before you get us all killed!"

Arcade just frowns, then shrinks back a little.

Gates gives a little smile. The professor says, "May I go back to sleep now?"

Gates says, "Honestly, I think if we tried to expand much further, especially across an ocean, we'd overextend ourselves. Not that the more ambitious members of the Parliament don't try."

Tex nods slightly. "Cause of the situation around here, I can't say I understand that, but I'm going to trust ya on this one."

Arcade grumbles something, but doesn't say anything out loud.

"Good. Well, if that's cleared up, I think I'll go back to Jacobstown."

Tex shrugs. "It's clear as mud, but I think I can get Arcade to stop his grumblings now. Again, sorry about this mess. I'm just glad he started up on this after the trainin' was done." He looks at Arcade briefly. "You guys might want to consider tradin' with the Legion too. I may not trust Caesar much, but I do think he's tryin' to do his best by them now. From what I understand, he hasn't taken a single new slave after the Legion trashed the Enclave a second time. Caesar wanted that defense treaty out of some sense of honor. With Kat bein' his wife, he seems to feel some sense of obligation to New Vegas because I'm here." He shrugs again. "I don't understand it myself, but I know he does have a sense of honor."

"I'll give it a try. It doesn't seem that much like him, with his history of backstabbing tribes, though we could be mistaken."

A treaty is drafted and sent to Caesar.

Quote :

In order to promote the prosperity and economic welfare of our nations, this treaty guarantees the right of unrestricted trade between citizens of Caesar's Legion and the Confederated Empire of Greater Switzerland, with tariffs needed to fund the government not to exceed one percent of the price of goods and the right of the respective governments to regulate trade within their territories unaffected.

Tex nods slightly. "Yeah, I know. That's why I'm glad I've got A&A to back us up. If Caesar decides to backstab us, he knows A&A will come to our defense. Besides, I'm not sure how he could backstab someone where trading is concerned." Yeah, that shows his ignorance where economics is concerned.

*******************

Caesar doesn't respond immediately, but eventually, within a few days, a positive response is sent back. He'll go for trading, apparently.

"Seizure of property and punishing tariffs and taxes would be one way. There's also nationalizing industry. That tends to be the realm of people who try to promote equality, and somehow I don't think that flies with him."