Realistically, ransoming the World is an unwise economic move
Any plot sufficiently large and powerful enough to ransom the World, or even a major country or two, is almost certain to be amazingly resource-intensive. Lairs, electronics, henchpersons…. it’s not like you’re trying to run a bakery out of your kitchen. (Which is potentially legal with a cottage license, and not, necessarily, a bad move, ecnomically.
Great. Let’s say you get the payoff. Your threat is credible. They muster the money to pay your outrageous ransom.
…and inflation goes absolutely insane.
Suddenly, since the resources of most major governments have been diverted into this project, they all go into debt or, in some cases, into even more massive debt.
They all raise taxes and/or club more people and steal their money, depending on the style of government involved.
You’ve got one hundred billion dollars in a Swiss bank account. Right now, some Swiss banker is telling her mistress all about it. She won’t breathe a word, though—they’re BOTH Swiss.
But money becomes worthless. There’s too much of it gathered in one place and not being spent. Because obviously, you need to lay low for a couple of years. The Swiss are discrete, but all the other people on Earth talk like crazy. If you make a bunch of huge expenditures, they’ll figure you out.
So the governments do what they always do: print more currency.
Which leads to massive inflation.
Which means that, little by little at first, and then more and more, your money is worth less and less.
With the last hundred million dollars (how could you have sunk so low?) you buy an island and build a luxury resort for one. You live happily ever after, although you can’t actually hire anyone as your money is worthless in a year. Nevertheless, they look to you for food and shelter, and you organize a ragtag group of survivors to begin hunting and gathering and beginning to farm. You realize: perhaps it’s better to live in a world where I can be part of something bigger than to be the richest human on Earth.
No, I’m kidding about the last part. You know it’s not better. But the coconuts are excellent, and you always did have a thing for really fresh seafood.
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If you enjoyed this, you might like Some Ingredients — Jeff Mach Writes
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~Jeff Mach
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