Stock Market

I wouldn't want to be the one responsible for coming up with a way to simulate a stock market that a) was largely automated, but b) was still partially responsive to whatever unremarkable effect players might actually have trading. I guess the gms could sort of simulate it, but that would require a lot of attention and constant monitoring and updating to be realistic. Sounds like a massive pain in the ass for something essentially superfluous.

To put it simply and concisely, I envision Withmore City to be an ultra-'advanced' form of the 'ownership society' scheme, that is to say total privitization. More than half the population of the US keeps there wealth in some form of financial instruments, whether stocks or bonds, usually through mutual funds. In 2090 and in a City where government has been eliminated, where the people are living presumably at the apex of this ideal corporate state, we're no longer talking about 'wage slaves'. It's more along the lines of individuals concious of their self-determinacy, prosperity, liberty, responsibility, bla bla, etc. all because they own some insignificant piece of the pie. Meanwhile, despite the illusion of ownership, beneath all this a centralized group of individuals have actually used this notion of 'freedom' and 'ownership' to harness/exploit the wealth of millions of people without their knowing. Think Enron, Worldcom, Tyco. Probably 100% of people living in corporate sectors rely for their financial security on the health of corporate finances, that is to say beyond the immediate provisions for survival, in other words food, shelter, etc., and depending on their position a few trifling play toys like a Holden or something to keep them satisfied and thinking they're important, whatever 'individual wealth' they've accumulated is basically in the form of stocks, bonds, whatever.. financial *instruments* So I don't think we should have any illusions about a 'free market', or there just 'being a stock market'. The financial markets *are* the corporations in a substantial way, they are its essential mechanism of control - it's the device that prevents revolution through an illusion of individual ownership, but simultaneously secures the uninhibited control of certain 'exceptional figures' over whole populations. I'd imagine a great deal of Red to be people who have trickled down over the years after being fucked over through future Enrons.