this post was submitted on 25 Nov 2025
234 points (95.7% liked)
Explain Like I'm Five
19015 readers
557 users here now
Simplifying Complexity, One Answer at a Time!
Rules
- Be respectful and inclusive.
- No harassment, hate speech, or trolling.
- Engage in constructive discussions.
- Share relevant content.
- Follow guidelines and moderators' instructions.
- Use appropriate language and tone.
- Report violations.
- Foster a continuous learning environment.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Personally, I think it isn't just class conflict that is at issue. IMO, a major problem with current economies and their understanding, is that they are built from inherited knowledge, wealth, and institutions.
They aren't deliberate systems, they are more like evolution: No planning, just inherited features from whatever came before. So long as those features don't prevent the animal from having offspring, evolution doesn't care. This can result in wonderful, confused, or niche creatures that are on their way to extinction. So the same goes for our economics.
To escape this state of affairs, we need to make deliberately constructed economies. I not saying a 'planned economy' like the Soviets or Chinese 5-year plans, but rather how each aspect of an economy interacts with other pieces. Like a tabletop RPG ruleset, where the specifics exist to facilitate the complexities that can arise. By specifying each element, we can create floors and ceilings for what any given action can do, which in turn makes it harder for the players to meta-game their way to dictating how everything goes.
To sum up: economic regulations, but as a clean sheet design and implementation.