Computer games have a save game feature so when the going gets tough, the player can be confident of starting again and having another go.
We should do the same with the economy.
I propose that today, we save where we are. This would entail writing everything down on bits of paper so that everyone knows who owes what to whom, who has some money as well as anything else that we think is important.
Then we would try to get out of the current difficulties with an appropriate action. Today we are trying an injection of funds to bring some UK banks into partial public ownership. If, after a while, it doesn't work and we all fall of a financial cliff or experience a meltdown or some other sticky end, we can simply re-load the saved game and start again. People will be concerned about any real consumption they have indulged in during the intervening period but the amount is so small it would be lost in the noise.
We can keep trying different things until we find something that works.
We could execute some bankers one week, the next we could trying betting the whole lot on red.
In the end, like all games, we would get bored which is a shame since it would be interesting to find out what the next level the economy has in store for us.-- DenholmRicshaw, Oct 13 2008 The Game http://www.losethegame.com/Be careful, you can only lose the game. [zen_tom, Oct 13 2008] "Game over, man! Game over!"-- DrBob, Oct 13 2008 Who decides whether we abandon the game and go back to the 'saved game'? The people who are making money or the people who are losing money?-- hippo, Oct 13 2008 WIBNI? Yes, it really would.-- wagster, Oct 13 2008 Hmmm. Loading a save game after executing bankers might prove tougher than you think...-- theleopard, Oct 13 2008 And there's the distinct possibility that someone will overwrite the savegame while we weren't looking (perhaps by reformatting the disk in order to try putting on a new OS or something) and we'll only discover this after we've already abandoned our old game.
I'd hate to wake-up one morning to discover that we've accidentally mixed up ZIMBAB20080618.eco with UKINGD20081002.eco-- zen_tom, Oct 13 2008 I say we take off and nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure-- BunsenHoneydew, Oct 13 2008 Who decides whether we should reload the saved snapshot? Obviously the people who did well under Scenario A wouldn't want to start over.-- phundug, Oct 13 2008 Maybe we could get them to enter their highscore somewhere?-- zen_tom, Oct 13 2008 "Who decides whether we abandon the game"
I tell you what, I'll decide for the next four years.
If we haven't won the game by then we could ask people to put a cross on a piece of paper next to the name of the person they want.
Rubbish idea I know but better than anything else I can think of.-- DenholmRicshaw, Oct 13 2008 I just lost the game.-- theleopard, Oct 13 2008 "Quarters, endless supplies of quarters! Mwahahahaha!" Donkey Kong-- quantum_flux, Oct 14 2008 This can be partially implimented by asking every person to record the state of two partners and two competitors, and reconciling the differences.-- Voice, Oct 14 2008 Baked. The Jubilee in the Bible Leviticus 25:9. Every fifty years, slaves would be freed, sins forgiven and lands returned to former owners.
Not quite the same thing, but it seems they did manage to get some kind of reset button working a long, long time ago.-- Bad Jim, Oct 14 2008 "Play Player Two......"
We for many do not want to hear the dreaded words, "All your base are belong to us ......"-- 8th of 7, Oct 14 2008 Everyone is playing the economy game from their own point of view... I want my own "save game" !!-- superjohn, Oct 15 2008 //I just lost the game.//
Damn you, leopard. I've been winning for about 18 months now. Back to square fucking one.-- sambwiches, Oct 15 2008 "I know how to beat this level, let me play your man for you. C'mon, lemme play it. No, that's wrong lemme play..."-- Noexit, Oct 15 2008 <lehmanbros4311> respawning in 09...08...07-- 4whom, Oct 15 2008 If I spend my ginormous gubament windfall on loose company and caviar, how are you going to get that back out of me when we revert to the saved game?-- bungston, Oct 15 2008 "loose company and caviar, how are you going to get that back out of me when we revert to the saved game?"
We'd probably make a special rule along the lines of "bungston isn't allowed any money this time".-- DenholmRicshaw, Oct 15 2008 This would work great as an arcade game:
$1 Trillion Dollars - 1 play $4 Trillion Dollars - 5 plays-- phundug, Oct 15 2008 A better question would be, What if I bought a third of the world's copper while I was rich? And I won't give it back, and have an army...?-- Voice, Oct 16 2008 We can use the rule that we can include anything else that we think is important.
So we could add copper and army size to the list and make sure that loading the game resets these to the saved values.
We're in uncharted territory so we can make it up as we go along.-- DenholmRicshaw, Oct 16 2008 I can't remember which Tom Clancy book it was where they essentially did this, but it was one of them. I think it was where someone intentionally attacked the US economy, I think it was Japan - so it was probably "Debt of honour" - I think the quote was "if it wasn't written down, it never happened". Typical clancy-esque solopsism on the part of the US, in my opinion.
Anyhoo, yeah, WIBNI.-- Custardguts, Oct 16 2008 Oh yeah, eleventy-billion buns to [Bunsenhoneydew]'s quote from above.
//I say we take off and nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure//
Scorched earth economics. Maybe Ripley was right.-- Custardguts, Oct 16 2008 What about developing this idea into an economic groundhog day... we could then try repeated options over and over until we find on that suits everyone... repeat the last trading period's activity and everyone remains happy. In the mean time we can all have a laugh trading on the markets with no worry about the repercusions... fun for all!-- BunFight101, Oct 16 2008 random, halfbakery