Outersphere League

[Hotdrop83]

The Outersphere League is a periphery nation located several hundred light years behind the Magistracy of Canopus. During the Age of War the Outersphere League cut off all contact with the Inner sphere out of fear and the need for safety. In 3081 the Outersphere League reestablished contact with the Inner Sphere and to the Inner Spheres shock it was revealed that the Outersphere League now had a military more powerful than any Inner Sphere realm possessed and additionally the Outersphere League had grown to the size of three hundred and seven planets and four hundred and thirty five moons. The Outersphere Leagues method of currency is to barter using materials. A materials worth is determined by how many uses it has. What this means is, in the Outersphere League, Iron is worth more than gold and silver are worth. The Outersphere League has a draft law which forces all non-disabled 19 year old citizens to serve in the military for at least 2 years. Education and Healthcare are important to the Outersphere League as the Outersphere League has a Educatoinal system and a Healthcare system second only to the Clans. The Outersphere League is a Democratic Republic. Human rights are greatly valued in the Outersphere League.

[Jaim Magnus]

Seems a bit over the top.  Mainly due to the military.  Why would they need such a large military?  Who are they fighting that justifies it?

[Warclaw]

If you don't need gold and silver  at LEAST as much as you do iron, something is off.

While Iron does have a multitude of uses, so do Gold and Silver, and the "Precious" metals tend to be quite a bit rarer than iron.  So not only is it a matter of number of uses, but also supply restrictions that should drive your Barter (actually more likely to be a "Hard" metals backed currency) system.  Supply vs demand still applies after all.

As far as your Draft law/public service requirement...two years is sufficient to train an infantryman, or a green to regular Armor crew, it is NOT sufficient to prepare sufficient NCO's or Veterans...not to mention mech pilots/aero-jocks....those would require an academy and several more years experience.  So unless you have a VERY robust professional army to go along with your mass of conscripts, all you would have is raw numbers, not a truly formidable force.   Rather like the Russian army of the mid- to-late 80's for example.  Impressive size, but hardly competitive in anything other than an attrition type war.   That huge army also was an immense drain on their resources, so unless you have an ongoing need for such a large force, I would expect it to be downsized by your representative democracy government.

[Hotdrop83]

If you guys both would have paid attention to the information about the outersphere league the outersphere league cut off all contact with the inner sphere during the age of war out of fear for its own safety, and this is why they have such a large military is to deter agression from the inner sphere. As for your argument about how could a periphery nation grow so large in the span of 500 years, you could say exactly the same thing about the clans growing so powerful and expanding so far in space during the short amount of time that they did. Not being involved in the inner spheres wars and cutting off all contact with the inner sphere has huge benefits. The Clans had a golden century where huge strides were made in every imaginable field, such as Medicine, mech technology, weapons technology, ecology, so this is pretty much the same thing that happened with the outersphere league. Another reason the outersphere league has such a huge military is to prevent the inner sphere from attacking it much like the Star League attacked the Periphery nations during the Reunification war. Yes it is true that gold and silver have uses but to assume that gold and silver have as many uses as iron is just plain foolish. The outersphere league is much the same as the clans, the clans and the outersphere league value conserving and using resourses that have great use. Resourses that do not have much use to the clans are not prioritized over resources that have many uses such as iron and steel and copper and water. You guys need to remember that the outersphere league  was secluded by itself with no foreign trade for like 500 years so the only way the outersphere league could survive was if it maintained and recycled and prioritized its resources that had the most uses. In societys such as the Clans and the Outersphere League, there is very little importance put on luxury items such as gold. I also want you guys to remember that the Clans being exiled from the inner sphere allowed the Clans to create the Omni-mech and Omni-vehicle and Omni-fighter and Battle Armor suit and just these 4 new technologies alone proved devastating to the inner shere during the clan invasion of 3050. The inner sphere had more mechs and larger armies, however the inner sphere could not challenge the Clans technological superiority on the battlefield, which, the clans technological superiority resulted from the clans staying out of inner sphere wars for a couple centuries.

[Aokarasu]

Hotdrop, they are offering constructive criticism of what you've presented.  If you are not open to such critique, you probably shouldn't post it here.  Much like them, I'm going to offer a bit of constructive criticism, but it has nothing to do with your material.  Your response would be much easier to read if you used paragraphs, instead of blending it all into one, big one.

Regarding the need of resources, perhaps you're not aware of the various industrial and electronic uses for gold, silver and copper?  That, along with their rarity makes them more valuable, overall, than iron.

Your Outersphere League has been out of contact with the Inner Sphere for 500 years.  With no direct contact, and no real competition, their development rate for new technologies would have slowed down significantly.

Lastly, any truly democratic society doesn't abide having a large standing military when there's no war going on.  I could go on at length to explain, but that'd definitely stray into the "no politics" area of the rules.

Essentially, your Outersphere League flies in the face of all known conventions, and not only stretches believability, but pretty much breaks it.

[Hotdrop83]

Okay guys I need to be blunt here, my best freind works for currency exchange and my other best freind is a United States Army Special Forces Soldier hes a Army Commando and to be blunt they think that you guys are saying nonsense and the stuff you are saying makes no sense whatsoever. Anybody who thinks that gold has more uses than iron is, sorry to say, a mentally challenged person. As for resources being scarce, that also makes no sense what you guys are saying because if the outersphere league is the only empire way out there in deep space in the middle of nowhere, and they have no competitors for resources, and also they have hundreds of moons worth of resources at their disposal, where exactly are you guys getting these ideas from that gold would be a scarce comodity in the Outersphere League? The Outersphere League has hundreds of moons and planets to get gold from if they feel like it. As for the military things you guys are saying, once again that makes no sense what you guys are saying because for 60 years america built up its military during the cold war when we never actually went to war solely for the fact that we were afraid that we would get into a nuclear conflict that never ended up happening. Fear can make empires do the most remarkable things, like building hundreds of nuclear warheads for use in a future conflict that never ever happened and wasting trillions of dollars on weapons that just ended up gathering dust, money that could have been better used for healthcare or education or to bolster the already weak US economy. Now then if you guys would pls stop trolling me and go read your history books i would be most grateful. Oh yeah last thing I am going to say is this. If you guys don't stop harassing me in my posts I am going to report you for trolling and starting arguments in the CBT forums. Trolling and starting arguments in the CBT forums is against the forum rules and is reason for CBT forum account suspension. If you guys dont like how I type there is a very easy way to handle that. Dont browse my forum posts and go bother other people. I like how I type so if you got a problem with it then thats your problem. I dont tell you how to be so pls dont tell me how to be. I do take criticism, however I only accept criticism if its logical and makes sense. The things that you guys are saying makes no sense whatsoever.

[Aokarasu]

You should do a few things, yourself.

1)  Read up on the definition of trolling and harassment.

2)  Do some more reading on history, as well.  The reason for the massive build-up for the military during the Cold War was because the Soviet Union threat was evident on a daily basis.

Obviously, you are not open to any sort of constructive criticism.  Since that's the case, perhaps you would be better off not posting here.  Anything posted on these boards is subject to peer review.

[Hotdrop83]

I also want to finish this forum post by saying this, if the Outersphere league is primarily comprised of moons, lets think supply and demand people, what resource is going to be more in supply, water, or gold, the answer is gold, now what resource is going to be more in demand, water or gold? the answer is water because most of the outersphere league is crater moons with no water on them that have colonies that needs water shipped to them via transport jumpship. I have an almost unlimited supply of gold, I have a limited supply of water. I may have just as much iron as gold however iron has more uses therefore iron is more valuable than gold is. Supply and demand guys. I will not be replying to this post anymore because I am not reading anything from you guys that makes any sense.

[Hotdrop83]

FYI AOS I reported you for trolling and harassment to the CBT moderators. I politely asked you to stop picking arguments with me and you wouldnt stop so I have reported you. I do accept criticism but only if it makes logical sense. I do not have to accept criticism that is illogical.

[Warclaw]

While Iron does have a multitude of uses, so do Gold and Silver, and the "Precious" metals tend to be quite a bit rarer than iron.  So not only is it a matter of number of uses, but also supply restrictions that should drive your Barter (actually more likely to be a "Hard" metals backed currency) system.  Supply vs demand still applies after all.

Anybody who thinks that gold has more uses than iron is, sorry to say, a mentally challenged person. As for resources being scarce, that also makes no sense what you guys are saying because if the outersphere league is the only empire way out there in deep space in the middle of nowhere, and they have no competitors for resources, and also they have hundreds of moons worth of resources at their disposal, where exactly are you guys getting these ideas from that gold would be a scarce commodity in the Outersphere League? The Outersphere League has hundreds of moons and planets to get gold from if they feel like it.

You might try reading what was ACTUALLY said, not just what you interpreted it as.  I said that Gold and Silver have many industrial manufacturing uses, I did NOT say that they have MORE uses.  And calling someone mentally challenged over something they didn't actually say, is not the best way to get a polite discussion going.

And as for supply issues...you might try cracking open a science/geology book or two.  Gold and silver are much less common elements than Iron.  And, they very often take a bit more effort to extract in quantity.  So, even if you DO have the "Hundreds of Moons and planets", your supplies of Gold and Silver ARE going to be less than your supplies of Iron.  So while you are correct that gold and Silver have fewer industrial uses, the corresponding supply of the materials is also going to be smaller/more expensive on a per unit basis.  That's just basic science.  I don't have any problem with you saying that Gold is not valued as a decorative/luxury good, but saying that the only value is NUMBER of uses, and not recognizing supply/demand issues is more than a bit unrealistic I think.