Cost of Living and TL

[seasong]

My latest lunch-break broken-brain question:

Is there anywhere in the core books that describes how Cost of Living goes up with Tech Level?

[Haseri]

I think it stays the same.

Even a Poor job at TL 0 ($125) is enough for a Status -2 Cost of Living ($100).

[Dragondog]

It does stay the same, but what you get for it changes with TL and setting.

[Anthony]

By RAW it stays constant. Personally I consider that stupid, but you'll have to come up with house rules if you want to change it.

[seasong]

Well, darn.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by seasong

My latest lunch-break broken-brain question:

Is there anywhere in the core books that describes how Cost of Living goes up with Tech Level?

As you've already been told, it doesn't. This reflects a reality of history, which is that as tech level went up, the status of a typical person improved from the negatives to a 0, and it no longer became necessary to be wildly extravagant to maintain the highest levels of status in society. In fact, these days, people with actually high status regard wild extravagance as the mark of a parvenu.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

As you've already been told, it doesn't. This reflects a reality of history, which is that as tech level went up, the status of a typical person improved from the negatives to a 0, and it no longer became necessary to be wildly extravagant to maintain the highest levels of status in society. In fact, these days, people with actually high status regard wild extravagance as the mark of a parvenu.

The writings of Roman satirists suggest that the same was true under the Caesars.

Bill Stoddard

[Anthony]

It's something of a flaw to base cost of living on status at all. If you are in a society where conspicuous consumption is expected behavior from high status individuals to demonstrate that they have the wealth to deserve their status, the cost of living will be roughly whatever is needed to demonstrate your wealth, without being actually crippling (which will link fairly directly to income). Otherwise, cost of living will just be determined by the level of comfort and utility you want. This will tend to result in higher numbers at higher TLs, just because people feel more able to afford the things they want, and there are more things available to spend money on, but is not particularly linked to status except to the degree that status is linked to wealth.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Anthony

It's something of a flaw to base cost of living on status at all. If you are in a society where conspicuous consumption is expected behavior from high status individuals to demonstrate that they have the wealth to deserve their status, the cost of living will be roughly whatever is needed to demonstrate your wealth, without being actually crippling (which will link fairly directly to income). Otherwise, cost of living will just be determined by the level of comfort and utility you want.

High status people have to hold and attend social events to "network". They have to be able to dress appropriately, give each other gifts that don't look chintzy, send their children to the right schools. If they don't they'll be regarded as eccentric at best.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

High status people have to hold and attend social events to "network". They have to be able to dress appropriately, give each other gifts that don't look chintzy, send their children to the right schools. If they don't they'll be regarded as eccentric at best.

And the cost of this is either time-based (i.e. it costs you X hours per month, not dollars per se) or will tend to scale with available wealth. 'Conspicuous Consumption' may be a loaded term, but that's basically what's going on there.