Libertarianism, Wiccans and the freeish market

[Rynn]

A goverment supporting itself probably works best in an export orientated economy, in real life the oil-rich states arre much closer to this than anyone else,essentially the customers pay for all the niceties, the state could be considered one big company that provides for its employee/citizens. I don't know what the y11k equivelant is to Oil though. Maybe nexus tarrif in a hub or stable monopole exports?

A state financing itself solely through a form of sovereign wealth is probably not impossible, but also not universal. Forms of taxation are currently fairly transferable given the similarities between economies, if one country trials a tax system and it works others can adopt. Not really possible if the neighbouring country funds itself through public ownership of environmental assets and your country has very few.

In OA the issue is in some ways more simple and in other ways more complicated. With the level of automation present in OA societies, even from relatively early in the setting, it's pretty easy to see how a state could act in a manner that was similar to self funding. Automated factories, hospitals, labs, infrastructure etcetera could all provide "free" public services. There's not much that taxes are used to pay for now that would still be the case if labour was free.

Exceptions could be non-fungible goods that a state may require money to pay for. For instance: if a company has a patent on a product that the state wants to acquire for the citizens (e.g. medicine).

One way I can think of a state providing without to0 much burden on private bvusiness is to be a supplier of last resort. By offering only the basic of services at the lowest (if not zero cost) but not preventing anyone else to enter the market. Any other business has to offer better in order to get the business, if nobody does the free market will simply choose the alternative. Branding would probably be quite important.

That's pretty much how things work now with things like private education and private healthcare (in nations that have good public versions of both). Though it's worth noting that private companies don't always and don't have to provide better service, they can just provide small extras. RL example; a few years ago my mother needed a fairly routine operation. The NHS waiting list was 8 weeks which wasn't bad (it wasn't in any way a life threatening or even much of a debilitating problem). Because my dad works for an American company we have private healthcare which we never bother using. Out of interest he looked into it any my mum got the operation at a private hospital in 5 weeks. There was absolutely no difference in the quality of care between the private hospital and what the NHS would have done. In fact the only difference was that my mum got a private room, better food and service staff regularly delivered tea on a trolly. The nurses though were rushed off their feet as private rooms make it far harder to monitor patients than a ward setting (there's a good reason for wards beyond economics).

Getting back to OA: many businesses might operate on a freemium model. Basic services come completely free, more advanced services require a payment.

Regaridng the megacorps and smaller buisness I wonder if they might be closer to a banding of small business or franchises, ala McDonalds and the federation of small business.

We do need to get down a good description at megacorps at one point but my interpretation is that a megacorp is a giant conglomerate that practices internal competition and corporate culture. Beyond being an economic force akin to businesses IRL megacorps own and run territory as well as political institutions in other states (i.e. a government department might be totally privatised out to a megacorp).

Think of it less like Sony or Apple and more like The Incorporated States of America. Where the nation is owned an operated by a company and getting a say in politics requires having enough shares to vote (with the size of your vote being dependent on shares). Most if not all internal economy is company owned with resources flowing in from companies overseas.

I'm getting an idea of how a OA NoCoZo might work be libertarian and a little socialist, though by all means not all would be of course. Short on time at the moment, will post up later.

The NoCoZo possibly has some socialist institutions but it is not a socialist society. It is a capitalist society wherein the means of production can be owned privately. It may have a few cooperative enterprises which are a socialist business structure but they operate solely in a capitalist market place.

For more on the NoCoZo feel free to see the first stage of my update of it:
http://www.orionsarm.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=1096