- Mine owner: These are the storehouses you need to guard.
- Mine owner: I saw the famine coming and bought all the food I could get my hands on.
- Tibor: That was very smart.
- Mine owner: Indeed. That’s why I’m the boss!
- Mine owner: However, many of the townspeople of Velis are no longer on good terms with me. They say I’m “hoarding” food!
- Mine owner: You must always be on your guard! Thieves may strike at any time!
- Tibor: We’ll do our best!
- Mine owner: I expect nothing less of you!
A Sky Full of Stars 066
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28 thoughts on “A Sky Full of Stars 066”
DysprosiumDy
If this isn’t gonna end with Tibor and Scarlet siding with the hungry villagers, then I’ll eat my hat.
7arty
Scarlet? Maybe.
But Tibor? He saw the writing on the wall pretty fast, and has been first to go hoarding and doomsday-prepping mode, skip town, go for mildly-toxic roots to prolong their own foodstock and line up at Velis in case he can get any free rations.
Chances are he would have done the same as the mine owner in his position, and if it comes to being a good samaritan or having enough food to last through a winter of indeterminate length? I’m betting on him choosing self-preservation, conscience be damned.
Only way I’m seeing Tibor siding with the villagers is Scarlet crunching numbers, somehow figuring out how long winter will last, and realizing there should be enough to feed both miners and villagers until next harvest …but then you’ve gotta wonder why there’s a famine at all if there was enough food in the first place.
DysprosiumDy
Tibor hoarded enough provisions for him and Scarlet. Or well, as much he was able to. But this man seems to have hoarded way more than he needs for power rather than survival. My assumptions, not facts, but the writing’s on the wall in my humble opinion.
hkmaly
Assuming this food is not just for his family but also for his employeers, it’s not THAT much.
Bernard
I summon you to honor your word!
BlackDragonSlayer
It’s easy to make decisions that benefit you when you already have excess resources for it in the first place.
Vicious Sand
It’s always “hoarding” when you have something that someone else wants. Especially when it’s complaining from someone who didn’t work to gain said thing. Lavarel really needs to step up it’s food production and food consumption planning. Of course, Scarlet doesn’t seem to have any schooling, and it’s been hinted that she’s not an accidental exception, so the collapse of self-sustainment may have already begun beyond the “winter, time for suffering!” setting of Eternal Summer.
Anyway, Mine Owner still has workers to feed. The likely upcoming hungry villagers should be working at growing sprouts or something. None of it’s the mine owner’s fault. I for one don’t think that S or T have enough willpower to turn back thieves. They’ll cave at the first child-in-tow.
Crystalgate
I don’t think Lavael even can step up its food production in a meaningful way. We should assume all arable land is being used for agriculture already. Anything beyond that will be low density food production compared to agriculture.
As for hoarding, I would say that the difference here is whether or not the food is used up once the starvation time is over. If when the next harvest comes and there is sufficient food again the mine owner still has a lot of food stored up, then it’s hoarding. If the food is used up at that point, it’s not.
hkmaly
Noone knows how long the starvation will last. It was already supposed to be ok.
Crystalgate
It lasts until the next beat harvest if it’s good. If it’s not a good harvest, then the starvation will continue until they do have a good harvest or the population has reduced enough so that the bad harvests are sufficient. It could also be possible to switch over to more bloomrabi and less firebeats. Regardless, for this purpose, if the mine owner has a lot of food left when the starvation ends, he has worsened the problem.
Rick
I don’t see this as about capitalism or socialism (or all the varieties thereof). Socialism works great if the government sharing everything is honest and efficient. (How often does that happen?) Capitalism works great if the government fairly enforces rules and does not kowtow to the rich and powerful. (How often does that happen?)
In this story, indications are that this will be a cold summer, and famine looms. A rich person notices this and plans. Buys up food. Good for them, they are making wise decisions.
A poor person notices this and plans. They can’t buy up food, so they sell everything they have and try going else where, eating weakly poisonous food to stretch rations. More wise decisions.
The people who don’t plan, face famine. I can’t blame them for saying others are hoarding and threaten violence because they and their children are facing starvation. Their lack of planning puts them in a bad position, but they didn’t do anything evil. They were just living their lives.
What about the ‘government’? Where was their planning? The government is just a bunch of people, and they could ‘plan’ for the worse (what can they do really?), or hope that the summer is ok, even after a cold spring. The government presumably had some discretionary funds, and could have built greenhouses. (Maybe this was done in a small way in some locations, it wouldn’t surprise me.) But in the face of massive climate change, war, famine, and plague are likely. Governments fall in such times.
I can’t greatly blame the mine owner for hiring guards to protect what is his. HE has workers to provide for, and his family to feed.
When food production collapses, people will starve. You get a lot of ugly, depressing stories coming out of such situations.
Rick
HKMaly
Even if the socialistic government would be honest (which didn’t happened yet), central planning simply doesn’t scale well, making socialistic country ALWAYS inefficient (unless it’s very small country, maybe).
It’s quite likely situation is now so bad that someone MUST die in the famine because there is simply not enough food. Only question is who.
Pappenheimer
It’s not necessarily just civilians. Rulers have been known to order the confiscation of property and execution of merchants who hoarded food in expectation of being able to sell it dear at the height of famine – famously, Richard I at the Siege of Acre. Our heroes may have to deal with an armed squad in the future – I don’t know who holds the political power here, but sacrificing a mine owner to earn some brownie points with a hungry populace isn’t out of the question.
Arthur
Can’t forget the Soviet Union when they cracked down on “Kulaks” as the definition got broader and broader until we have Holdomor. Then no food for anyone.
Crystalgate
It does make sense. If the mine owner stores up a lot of food, but in the end of the famine the food is consumed, then fine. The food server its purpose, while the mine owner may have shifted around who gets to eat and who starves, in the end the food was used to relieve some people of starvation. The mine owner however said he bought as much food as he was able to and if in the end of the famine he still has a lot of food stored up, then there is food just laying there in the store that otherwise could have been used to keep people alive. In this case the mine owner has actively worsened the famine by making food unavailable.
It makes sense for a government to in various ways stop people from making things worse during a famine.
Pappenheimer
Was recently reading a book about the Little Ice Age and its effects across the Northern Hemisphere. Cold wet summers and failed harvests meant Famine (and attendant plague) ,Conquest, War, and DEATH. All the old four riding again on a grand tour.
Funny, I’d thought Famine rated his own pony.
Vicious Sand
The Four Horsemen is a fable about the 4 ways to die. You’re just minding your own business, when either War, Famine, Plague, or Pestilence (that one’s bugs) kills you. Death is not a horseman, death is the result.
Jakalor
At least in the Bible (Book of Revelations), Death is one of the Horsemen, “And I looked, and behold, a pale horse! And its rider’s name was Death, and Hades followed him”
Graybeard
This guy’s face, combined with the arm on Tibor’s shoulder, looks disturbingly like the first appearance of Marik (see last panel).
Crystalgate
Marik was looming over Tibor and was looking menacing, neither of which the mine owner did. The mine owner looks more sly than menacing. I suspect he is a bit shady, but I doubt he’s anywhere near as bad a Marik is.
Hegel-Marx
A successful capitalist magnate in this world must be at least somewhat prepared for cruelty. Marik, as a loan shark and in terms of his threatening behavior, is probably at the very top of the scale. The mine owner can be more moderate. Marik must also have strongmen working for him and he does not treat them as if they were debtors.
I am curious to see how Novil will unravel this adventure. Something dramatic must happen. Tibor and Scarlet survived for a while in the wilderness. Now they are back in civilization – but that civilization is quite savage.
I think the conditions in that mine are about the same as in 19th century Pittsburgh, which horrified Herbert Spencer. People work 12 hours per day, 7 days in a week, for food and shelter.
https://existentialcomics.com/comic/370
Pharmadan
Dunno how much time has passed but I bet we see Julius with the villagers saying he’s hoarding food.
As for if it’s hoarding or not… There is a fine line between planning ahead and depriving others. Of course desperate people will want what others have, but if someone was prudent and planned ahead especially if legally… Plus is the food being used as leverage against folks or rationed for the folks he’s responsible for?
With our current info we don’t really have enough details to determine if it is hoarding or not, personally leaning towards not at the moment.
AgentOracle
Gah, reminds me of the Helena hurricane fallout. I have canned food, lots of water, and a wide variety of supplies for any disaster: and then the hurricane hit and I realized I owned a electric stove and no means of cooking my canned food. and power was out for over a week…
Cold ravioli sucks, but it won’t poison you.
Arthur
Could you not build a fire? I feel like a firestarters kit should have been included in your survival gear.
Dan
I highly recommend simulation runs for just about any kind of preparation. For that sort of situation I would (and have) prepare a meal with the power and water turned off; you can just think it through but reality directly challenges any assumptions.
More mundanely, I do the same thing ahead of a trip. For example, I’d place all my packed items in a marked off area and then try taking a photo and transferring it to a portable hard drive using only those items to identify things like missing cables.
MegaJar
Now, here’s an interesting question. What if, instead of trying to steal from him, the townspeople came and ASKED him to share his food with them, since he has so much? Would he do it? SHOULD he do it?
Let’s look at a hypothetical scenario (using round numbers to keep the math simple). Imagine you live in a town with 1,000 people. Of those, 100 (including yourself) work at a mine that you own, which means you’re in charge of the welfare of those 100 people; you have no legal obligation to the rest of the town. Having seen this famine coming, you thought ahead and stockpiled 10,000 days’ worth of food. Then the town mayor knocks on your door and asks you to share your food with the entire community.
Do you:
(a) Ignore the request and only share the food with those 100 people for whom you are directly responsible. Each of those 100 people would have enough food for 100 days (more than enough time to last until spring), while the rest of the town would be left to fend for themselves.
OR:
(b) Accept the request and share the food equally with all 1,000 people in town. Everyone would have enough food for only 10 days, and then everyone would go hungry.
Which would be the preferable option?
Arthur
Option A is clearly the smarter more logical option. Option B feels nice but will result in everyone dying.
Of course, feelings do not care about logic so Option B will most likely happen.
Crystalgate
Based on the food packets that was being handed out to the residents of Velis, it looks to me like the starvation situation is under control there, at least for now. As long as it remains so, it is indeed thieves the mine owner has to worry about. If the food packets stop coming and starvation kicks in for real, then it will be a mob that the mine owner has to worry about.
Characters
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