You're a wizard! Now what? Well, since seemingly 99% of professional employment in the wizarding world is with the Ministry of Magic, you had better hope you have an in there. But let's say you don't. How are you going to get enough Galleons to be able to buy those tasty treacle tarts? Well, I... Continue Reading →
Proper Tax Collection: The Most Improbable Part of the Star Wars Economy
Warning: this post contains myriad assumptions based on impossible-to-know numbers According to rough calculations taken from Star Wars: The Essential Atlas, there are about one million member worlds in the Galactic Republic, each with an average of two billion inhabitants, meaning that the total number of citizens in the Galactic Republic is about two quadrillion... Continue Reading →
John Scalzi’s Collapsing Empire and the Intragalactic First Mover Advantage
John Scalzi's Collapsing Empire is a fun, quick read that fits comfortably alongside some of his other sci-fi novels like Old Man's War and The Ghost Brigades. The novel, like most other Scalzi novels, balances multiple witty and humorous characters with serious galaxy-spanning plots. I have read basically all of Scalzi's work and would recommend... Continue Reading →