Future Thoughts: Most of which will involve economics
These are random ideas on how economic systems will adjust to the presence of metahumans. Note that you can't hold me to any of these thoughts but this was inspired by CM's post on economics.
* Initially, there won't be much directional movement in the stock market, although there will be a lot of positional movement. The presence of metahumans doesn't suggest any direction for the market to take. For the five percent of people holding serious money who think, "the metahumans will take control, this will mean the end of money and metahuman rule, sell everything you've got", there will be another five percent that think, "this means that we can develop a shitload of goods and services and maybe have some new inventions, buy everything that you can possibly can".
Result: high trading, but the numbers don't budge! There's a lot of "Stock swapping", the billion$ of dollars that would have sank the stock market by people liquidating their portfolios is going to be replaced by people that go on a massive buying spree. Initially, it will be interpreted that the sellers are the winners and the purchasers - some of who go into massive debt - are the losers. But this might not be the case.
* Puerto Rican debt bond holders are going to be fucking furious. They'll want their losses addressed by the US government. So will those in the shipping industry. "The actions of metahumans wiped out a whole bunch of our portfolios."
* On the other hand, the rebuilding of Puerto Rico's infrastructure with metahuman assistance? It might make PR a technology hub. It's an act of giving a bunch of free money (in terms of free repairs) to PR business entities.
* I predict gun sales will spike greatly. The NRA will go on the warpath. "If metahuman soldiers try to take your guns, shouldn't you try to protect yourself?"
* It will take a serious upgrade of the "tech tree" by metahumans before oil and gas take a hit. So people holding positions there won't experience any losses right away, although the smart ones will start to diversify.
* Financiers will try to get control of the metahumans. This won't be an X-Men Days of Future Past kind of campaign and no one is going to be called "mutie". However, we will see:
-- Attempts to identify metahumans will skyrocket, so that their resources can be "mined". "If you're a superintellect, work for us at Facebook!"
-- Attempts by financiers to use political donations to break up the SPC/Legion for one reason - to make sure that nothing they do interferes with the money they try to make. We might see campaigns by Republicans (or Democrats, either party is equally likely and I haven't decided which) - to dissolve the Legion or the SPC, so that businessmen can swoop in on the remains and hire ex SPC/Legion members at million dollar salaries.
-- Advertising and the entertainment industry will skyrocket. The SPC are fairly anonymous, but the Legion will become the most well followed superhero group.
** Young
** Lots of pretty girls
** High publicity/celebrity profile
-- National Legion membership will skyrocket and the NL will become a serious political force.
-- Other countries will seek to form NL chapters. I suspect that other countries will attempt to ban the formation of NL chapters, seeing it as a national security threat. "We can't have a group operating in our country that a) claims to act in the name of all youth, and b) has connections to a superpowered vigilante group!"
-- Hero's Welcome will be founded by some upstart dude from Illinois who blogs about the Legion. By the end of the following year it will be the Number One Source for Metahuman News and be one of the most popular blogs on the planet, with its own TV show.
* Initially, there won't be much directional movement in the stock market, although there will be a lot of positional movement. The presence of metahumans doesn't suggest any direction for the market to take. For the five percent of people holding serious money who think, "the metahumans will take control, this will mean the end of money and metahuman rule, sell everything you've got", there will be another five percent that think, "this means that we can develop a shitload of goods and services and maybe have some new inventions, buy everything that you can possibly can".
Result: high trading, but the numbers don't budge! There's a lot of "Stock swapping", the billion$ of dollars that would have sank the stock market by people liquidating their portfolios is going to be replaced by people that go on a massive buying spree. Initially, it will be interpreted that the sellers are the winners and the purchasers - some of who go into massive debt - are the losers. But this might not be the case.
* Puerto Rican debt bond holders are going to be fucking furious. They'll want their losses addressed by the US government. So will those in the shipping industry. "The actions of metahumans wiped out a whole bunch of our portfolios."
* On the other hand, the rebuilding of Puerto Rico's infrastructure with metahuman assistance? It might make PR a technology hub. It's an act of giving a bunch of free money (in terms of free repairs) to PR business entities.
* I predict gun sales will spike greatly. The NRA will go on the warpath. "If metahuman soldiers try to take your guns, shouldn't you try to protect yourself?"
* It will take a serious upgrade of the "tech tree" by metahumans before oil and gas take a hit. So people holding positions there won't experience any losses right away, although the smart ones will start to diversify.
* Financiers will try to get control of the metahumans. This won't be an X-Men Days of Future Past kind of campaign and no one is going to be called "mutie". However, we will see:
-- Attempts to identify metahumans will skyrocket, so that their resources can be "mined". "If you're a superintellect, work for us at Facebook!"
-- Attempts by financiers to use political donations to break up the SPC/Legion for one reason - to make sure that nothing they do interferes with the money they try to make. We might see campaigns by Republicans (or Democrats, either party is equally likely and I haven't decided which) - to dissolve the Legion or the SPC, so that businessmen can swoop in on the remains and hire ex SPC/Legion members at million dollar salaries.
-- Advertising and the entertainment industry will skyrocket. The SPC are fairly anonymous, but the Legion will become the most well followed superhero group.
** Young
** Lots of pretty girls
** High publicity/celebrity profile
-- National Legion membership will skyrocket and the NL will become a serious political force.
-- Other countries will seek to form NL chapters. I suspect that other countries will attempt to ban the formation of NL chapters, seeing it as a national security threat. "We can't have a group operating in our country that a) claims to act in the name of all youth, and b) has connections to a superpowered vigilante group!"
-- Hero's Welcome will be founded by some upstart dude from Illinois who blogs about the Legion. By the end of the following year it will be the Number One Source for Metahuman News and be one of the most popular blogs on the planet, with its own TV show.
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