Search

[Michael]

Every society has natural resources and labor that are required to make products, but how do we decide what products to make and which resources to use? In Dissent on Mars, your answer to this question changes the rules of the game.

There are three different allocation systems an economy can use: a market, central planning, and democratic planning. Most people are familiar with markets since that's the main one we use on Earth, but you can use any of them on Mars!

Let's dive into each one so you have a better idea of how they work in-game.

Market
A market is a competitive bidding between producers and consumers. Producers bring products to the market and adjust decisions based on consumer demand.

For example, if your colony produced 200 bottles of orange juice but only 10 bottles were sold, producers would likely lower the price to increase their chances of selling it. The lowered price also incentivizes producers to make less orange juice in the future. If demand was greater than supply, the price would likely increase, therefore incentivizing producers to make more of it.

Bargaining power also plays a big role in how markets work. The classic example of this is a monopoly; if one producer controls an entire industry, nothing is stopping them from gouging their prices to the sky. Since you can control any character you want, this monopolist could be you... but we shouldn't have to worry about that, right? I'm sure Martians would never be greedy!

Central Planning
In central planning, a central authority collects information and creates a plan for the entire economy. The central authority can either be you (the player) or a computer that monitors the economy.

The central planner is responsible for setting the prices of every product, allocating labor into workplaces, creating production plans for workplaces, and more. The fact that these decisions are centralized makes it easy to run the economy in different ways. For example, you could adjust prices based on supply and demand, or you could make everything incredibly cheap to help out the colonists.

Of course, being a central planner comes with a lot of responsibility. The entire colony is depending on you to do a good job, so let's hope you're up to the task!



Democratic Planning
In democratic planning, producers and consumers work together to create a plan for the entire economy. In some ways, this is the inverse of a market; instead of encouraging competition, this system encourages cooperation.

Throughout this process, producers create plans listing what they'd like to produce, while consumers create plans listing what they'd like to consume. The plans are then analyzed by a computer to determine the supply and demand for everything in the economy. If everything is feasible, the plans will be approved. Otherwise, prices will be updated by a computer, and the colonists will adjust their plans accordingly.

You can think of this as a "virtual negotiation". Instead of negotiating verbally in person, it's being done with the colonists' plans. Of course, we all know that democracy can sometimes be messy and drawn out... so I wonder how long it will take your colonists to negotiate a plan for the entire economy?

Conclusion
Honestly, this post only gives a brief overview of how these systems work, but I hope it gives you an idea of the different directions you can take your society.

I'm guessing you have a lot of questions, but don't worry! There's more information coming. In my next post, I'm going to talk about property and the different ways it can be owned. I hope you're looking forward to it!

Wishlist and Follow Dissent on Mars
Don't forget to wishlist and follow the game so you can see our future posts! It would be great if you could tell your friends about it too.

Thanks for reading,

Michael