Point-Balanced Income and Cost of Living

[Anthony]

Most discussions about cost of living come down to disputes about realism. However, there is another way of looking at things: fair point costs.

Based on B293, a day of full time work consumes 8 hours; it is not clearly stated, but appears to be the intent, that this counts against hours available for Education (B293) and Long Tasks (B346), both of which are also limited to 8 hours per day. In addition, you have 4 hours of free time per day which can be used for self-teaching, long shifts, or presumably other unstated purposes.

At TL 8, full time work, counting vacation days, is about 2 days out of 3. Thus, a full time job can be modeled as -5.3 hours of working time per day.

There are a couple of disads that affect your available time, the simplest of which is Extra Sleep. This is -1 hour per day for -2 points, but it doesn't actually count against your limit for long tasks. On the other hand, you can't benefit from on the job training while asleep, and you can at work. If we take those two things as balancing one another out, having a job is a 10 point disadvantage, and conversely, "does not need to work" is a 10 point advantage.

10 levels of Independent Income is 10% of starting wealth per month. As the TL 8 person working full time is working about 20 days per month, this implies daily wages should be 0.5% of starting per hour, and that TL 8 average wages are about $2,000/mo (or $12.50/hr), TL 3 are $100/mo (though perhaps the TL 3 character works 26 days for $130/mo).

Now, for cost of living, the basic effect of living below your status is a reaction penalty, plus not getting the stuff you aren't paying for. Assuming the stuff you're not getting is background stuff with no game mechanical effect, which is true for most lifestyle associated costs, this implies living at -1 status should be at most a -5 point disad, and "doesn't pay cost of living" is not more than 10 points, and possibly as few as 5 points (assuming the status loss is discounted to a -3 point disad and that it's a 60% reduction). The 80/20 rule for settled wealth gives us 8%. I am somewhat fond of 5%, as it is simple.

Note that this winds up basing cost of living on wealth level (not status level), which is problematic. Fortunately, there's a fairly simple fix: real-world status is almost always tied to a real world job, so we can just say "a standard job pays 10% of starting wealth per month, or 5% if half time. Some jobs cover cost of living; they pay 5% if full time, or 0% if half time. You may eliminate your cost of living for 5 points".

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by Anthony

10 levels of Independent Income is 10% of starting wealth per month. As the TL 8 person working full time is working about 20 days per month, this implies daily wages should be 0.5% of starting per hour, and that TL 8 average wages are about $2,000/mo (or $12.50/hr), TL 3 are $100/mo (though perhaps the TL 3 character works 26 days for $130/mo).

Historically, many TL2-4 jobs had fewer working days than we do today (though more time was spent in basic personal maintenance, like washing clothes, cooking, etc.), though depending on job and season they might be much longer (or shorter, for that matter).

[AlexanderHowl]

For medieval servants, a 'day' of work was from dawn to midday or midday to dusk, so they worked four hours a day during the shortest days and eight hours a day during the longest days, averaging six hours a day. In medieval Europe, they would have also expected additional compensation for working Sundays and holidays, which would have totaled a third of a year. In effect, they would have worked around 1440 hours per year.

Of course, the extra time that they gained was spent maintaining their household, foraging for herbs and mushrooms, fishing and trapping small game, gathering firewood, etc., so their lives did not have more free time, just less work outside of the house. Unlike during the Industrial Revolution though, they would not be required to work themselves to death, as only stupid overlords would not have valued their work. Unfortunately, there were a lot of stupid overlords, it came from drinking lead sweetened wine and eating undercooked meats with parasites.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Rupert

Historically, many TL2-4 jobs had fewer working days than we do today (though more time was spent in basic personal maintenance, like washing clothes, cooking, etc.).

That could be interpreted as counting against your working hours. From a point balance perspective it doesn't matter whether the hours are consumed by a job or by other types of required work, as long as the hours are consumed.

[hal]

So - to put this differently...


There is Obligation based time in which you have to work, do personal chores, etc...

Then there is discretionary time that is free time to do with as you wish.

Does that more or less sum things up?

For instance, if your character wants to maintain a good standing in the community where religious attendance is required to maintain good standing, then time in church and church related functions is obligatory. If the community doesn't care - but attendance at church grants a reputation bonus, then that is how it works out. Perhaps hours spent in church gain you a "ally group: Fellow church members" or something like that.

Hmmm.

It looks like an interesting alternative to what GURPS uses. Why not pursue this further?

[Donny Brook]

I really don't understand what this idea is for or what it does.