TL-10 gear manufactured by TL-12 factories

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by jeff_wilson

It's perfectly valid and in keeping with comparative advantage for the TL6 planet to largely give up manufacture while still engaging in the production of other goods and services, specializing in exportable market segments like bespoke items, folk arts, agriculture, mercenaries, domestic servants, educators, performers, life coaches....

Certainly. Which goods the inferior economy specializes is driven by the opportunity cost in that economy, which is not necessarily in the same proportion or even ordering as the same choice in the superior source. The high-tech world has an "absolute advantage" because it can produce everything cheaper, but the low-tech can still have a "comparative advantage" thanks to different proportions in its opportunity costs.

Exactly what the GM wants the planet to produce is one of those worldbuilding decisions. If you need to justify it, then this is one rationale. Just adjust the low-tech opportunity costs to favor folk art and agriculture; or the converse, if that's what's desired.

(You might then go into even more detail on which products within that manufacturing sector have the comparative advantage, or similarly which ones in the agricultural sector. But that's probably overkill. I suspect most players will be happy with a reason that not every world in a subsector must necessarily be a charity dependent on the highest tech planet in the sector, even though it's true that Rhylanor's TL15 stuff is cheaper.)

[SteveS]

Higher technology worlds even have the advantage on agricultural products, because of things like advanced hybrids, better tractors, fusion powered fertilizer factories, etc. The one place where the low technology world might have the advantage is where things just don't take to mechanization, such as plucking saffron threads out of the flowers.

If it hasn't been mentioned already, lower technology worlds might try to build universities. "Where in the Marches can you learn jump navigation by slide-rule? Only at Knorbes Institute of Advanced Learning."

[jeff_wilson]

Originally Posted by SteveS

Higher technology worlds even have the advantage on agricultural products, because of things like advanced hybrids, better tractors, fusion powered fertilizer factories, etc. The one place where the low technology world might have the advantage is where things just don't take to mechanization, such as plucking saffron threads out of the flowers.

The TL-6 world can much more easily support agricultural competition by importing tractors and cultivars thanks to the way agriculture scales. The fusion fertilizer edge might be true and insurmountable by fiat in some dated supplement but I'm not sure that current science supports the sustainable use of synthetic fertilizer as a positive good when all externalities are considered.

[ak_aramis]

Originally Posted by SteveS

For a real world example of a government intervention in economics, I heard on NPR that Uganda banned the importation of second-hand clothing, because the local textile industry can't hope to compete with the price of clothing that wealthy countries' thrift stores can't sell; except for the cost of shipping, it arrives for free. With the ban, local textile makers still have to compete with imports of new products, but at least they don't have to compete with free stuff.

Such bans may be more complex than simple worker protection.

Western clothing and western values are often seen as inextricably linked, and while outright bans are usually religiously imposed, such a "restriction to privilege" move keeps western clothing out of the grasp of locals.

The question becomes, "can a typical Ugandan afford to dress in «Western Clothing» if they want to?" and "Do Ugandans actually want to dress in «Western Clothing»?" If the second is "no", the first is moot. If the first is no, then the move is political for more than just job-protection - it gets into the range of cultural protection.

[tanksoldier]

Originally Posted by SteveS

. Higher technology worlds even have the advantage on agricultural products, because of things like advanced hybrids, better tractors, fusion powered fertilizer factories, etc.

In this specific case the TL-12 world is a desert focused primarily on mining and manufacture. What agriculture there is probably takes place in hydrophonic domes.

The TL-6 world is the primary food producer for the kingdom and many nonaligned worlds as well. It’s a low population borderline garden world.

The other world in the kingdom is the capital, a low population but high tech level hell world. There are several other worlds of varying tech levels that have entered a defensive pact, and that’s what the planetary defense installations are meant to defend.

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by ak_aramis

Such bans may be more complex than simple worker protection.

Or more bureaucratic than worker protection. In Guyanna, a large portion of the nations income is from migrant workers in developed nations sending money and goods home. Money orders are heavily taxed, so barrels full of non-perishables are frequently sent instead, and clothing is a common item in them. Then everyone goes to market and buys/sells/swaps the contents of their barrels. I could see the government banning imported second hand clothing as a way of closing a tax loophole.

This also demonstrates a possible way a low-tech planet could "trade" with the high tech one. Instead of organized and external charity, you have migrant workers sending money home. The low tech nation's export is the most ambitious of their population.

[jeff_wilson]

Originally Posted by ericthered

This also demonstrates a possible way a low-tech planet could "trade" with the high tech one. Instead of organized and external charity, you have migrant workers sending money home. The low tech nation's export is the most ambitious of their population.

previously mentioned as "domestic servants, educators, performers, life coaches..." in an earlier post.

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by ericthered

The low tech nation's export is the most ambitious of their population.

Its export is what we call "labour".

[tanksoldier]

Originally Posted by Agemegos

Its export is what we call "labour".

Not always just “labor”. A real world example might be India, which is largely at TL-7 and even TL-6... but which has teaching hospitals and universities at TL-8, or near enough not to matter. I don’t know about the rest of the world but India exports physicians to the US like crazy, despite being overall at a lower TL.

Information Technology is, interestingly, another area where a lower tech world might compete. The low tech world might not be building servers or designing programming languages, but their people can learn to USE those languages designed elsewhere. Whatever the TL-12 equivalent of DBAs, SysAdmins and programmers are the population of the lower tech planet probably makes up a large percentage of them if current trends are any indication.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by tanksoldier

In this case the specific TL-6 world is a sparsely populated agrarian world. So they are selling food and importing advanced farming equipment. What industry they do have is becoming focused on producing TL-6 stuff for local consumption like farm trucks.

I suspect that in order to be successful a TL-6 industrial world would have to specialize in things were TL doesn’t matter much. Refining basic raw materials and the like.

Yes, exactly. That's what comparative advantage means. If you can do A twice as well as I can, but you can do B ten times as well, it makes sense for you to concentrate on doing B and leave me to do A: you have an absolute advantage in both, but I have a comparative advantage in A. There's a neat graphical proof for this using convex body diagrams.