Ok, new day new me. Yesterday I managed to hold a conversation with a woman without talking about monopolistic competition. This is good, this is an improvement. I have no clue how today is going to go regarding the meeting.

Yesterday, I ended the meeting by asking a bunch of autocrats to expand human rights. While I imagine all the democracy lovers who are reading are applauding this, I imagine people that maintain their power by oppressing with an iron fist are not.

I am not a political scientist by any means. I have read the major historical guys like Machiavelli, and Aristotal. But that was during my undergraduate days mostly. My understanding of international relations is rudimentary at best.

I’m pretty good with strategy board games. I was above average at chess in my world, checkers, connect four, settlers of catan, civilization, etc. Though in civ I kinda just made a bunch of trade routes and collected money. I dislike war ok! I’d rather just collect money and spend it on public works.

Anyways, you get the picture. Someone like me is NOT meant for political schemes. I might achieve some success if I tried, but I would rather spend my time doing other more important things. My status as hero might have quite a bit of weight behind it, but I’d rather not get too comfortable.

This is why I want to find someone who can help me with this stuff. After all, a market is more efficient with more actors within it. If I have more than one person thinking about stuff, that stuff will be thought of more efficiently. Yes, I use economics metaphors for everything, stop complaining about it. It hurts my feelings when you do that.

I was going to ask Sara for help with this but that’s like asking an accountant not to be boring. Or like asking a business administration major for help with math homework. Basically, it’s a bad idea, she definitely doesn’t think the way a sleazy politician does.

I’m going to have to keep an eye out for someone like that. For now, I’m just going to rely on the authority God gave me. Speaking of that God, why the fuck did he want to build a bridge across the ocean? I think I have some idea why but, even so the whole bridge idea was way to crazy. That is something I’m going to deal with on a later date.

For now, it’s time to get ready for the meeting. I already know what I wanted to go over today, but we’ll have to see first what they plan to do about the economic freedom idea.

My clothes are washed every night by a maid, and during that time I wear a cotton shirt and pants. I like the clothes from my world more, but this isn’t so bad.

I put on my favorite shirt, shorts, and shoes then start heading to the meeting room. Sara is waiting for me and starts to pour me tea. I offer to let her sit next to me, but she declines stating that she doesn’t have the stature.

The old men are at the table before me. It seems they come beforehand due to respect. It’s probably a good idea to go over these guys more thoroughly.

There are 6 big players here. They are Emperor Augustine of the Augustinian kingdom. Aric king of Slavonia. King Fernando of Iberia. Queen Audrey of Wisteria. Queen Juliette of Avalonbourg. And king Adam of Bergkron.

Four of them have older appearances. The two who don’t are Audrey and Aric. Aric is in his mid-20’s, handsome, with black hair and blue eyes. Audrey, in her later 20’s, was beautiful with black hair and blue eyes as well. They kind of looked like they could be related.

I was the youngest one at the table, and probably the least attractive out of the young ones here. I’m by no means ugly I don’t think, but I wasn’t anything that special in my world. I don’t have the worst features, but my red hair was picked on a lot, and I am a little underweight and weak.

“So, what conclusions were reached after yesterday’s discussion? Are you willing to provide those freedoms?” I ask.

“We have always been prepared to do as the hero asks. The question was how to do it. We could not disappoint our hero with failure to achieve his expectations.” Aric responded.

So, they weren’t considering not doing it? That is really convenient. Thankfully they are willing to do a lot of the thinking for me about how to implement these policies.

“The plan that we came up with is a joint accountability auditing system. Essentially every nation will maintain multiple independent freedom auditors in each other country. By doing this, we can ensure that no nation violates the terms set by the hero behind his back.” Aric spoke to me; he seemed especially passionate about this discussion.

“I… I see, thank you for thinking so thoroughly. We will go with what you have described. Aric, can I have you be the one that coordinates this on my behalf?” When I asked this he smiled widely.

“Certainly!”

Now is the time to discuss the next important thing. While this wasn’t taught in my econ 101 class, it is certainly necessary as a foundation for macroeconomics.

“Now then, I will present two more definitions to you and then go into today’s discussion on the 10 principles of economics.”

The scribes’ present got especially focused when I started speaking. Apparently, my rudimentary econ lessons are being treated as divine revelations here.

“The two definitions we will start with are microeconomics and macroeconomics. Of the subdisciplines within economics, these are the two most prevalent.

Macroeconomics is the study of economy wide phenomena. Essentially when an issue encompasses a nation as a whole it is macroeconomic. Government spending, inflation, GDP are all macroeconomic topics.

Microeconomics is the study of individual actors within an economy and their decision making. Looking through the viewpoint of a household, or a business is usually microeconomics. The question of how much to produce at different costs and prices is an example of microeconomics.

We will be mostly discussing macroeconomics when we are together. After all our decisions here will encompass entire nations’ economies.”

Once I finished my explanation of that they get to talking. One of my more difficult tasks in this world is deciding how to even begin. Managing one nation’s economy is one thing, but many different nations feels impossible.

I decided to start off by teaching the basics to the respective nation’s leaders. If they have more knowledge of what I will be looking at, then they can provide me with better information and make better decisions when I’m not around. Hopefully I can start an academic movement as well and that way get better nuanced information that I might be lacking already.

I already requested a bunch of information from each nation, but that will take some time to get my hands on. This is probably the best use of my time right now.

“Then for the ten principles of economics. The first principle is that people face tradeoffs. When you do one thing, you are inherently not doing another. If you are going to college, then you are not entering the workforce.

One of the most important tradeoffs for an economy as a whole is the tradeoff between equity and efficiency. Producing at maximum efficiency has in practice and theory leads to higher income inequality.”

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“Does this mean that attempts to create more equal societies will be inherently harmful?” Emperor Augustine asked.

“Harmful for some people, beneficial for others. Tradeoffs in fiscal policy is essentially choosing who we should focus our resources on based on what a society believes in.”

“I see, so decision making based off tradeoffs is more philosophical and ethical than economics sometimes?”

“Exactly.”

Whether one outcome is good or bad is often arbitrary. There are many reasonable arguments made based on whether an effect of a policy is good or bad. This tends to be based on beliefs.

“The second principle is the cost of something is what you give up to give it. When you grow up with money around you, you come to think of it as inherently valuable. In reality, the value within money is what you can get with it.

This leads into the concept of opportunity cost. The cost of something is what you must give up to obtain that item. The cost of a ball is not the amount of money associated with that ball, but whatever you can’t buy with the money you spent on that ball. The opportunity cost of a ball could be a book.”

They seemed to understand this fine. So, I moved on to the next few.

“Number three is that rational people think at the margin. When you decide, you consider the cost and benefit of each additional increment. Like deciding to stay in school or spend an extra hour studying. These are decisions made on the margin. We assume people are rational actors in economics who consider things marginally.

Number four is that people respond to incentives. Incentives are the bread and butter of economic policy. When you write a policy, you don’t force people to decide one way. Rather you try and guide people to that outcome. An example is when the price of a good rises, people are incentivized to buy less of it.

Number five is that trade can make everyone better off. Trade is not a zero-sum game as many think it to be. Specialization is a product of trade, having one person in a village dedicated to making hammers is much better than forcing a bunch of farmers to make their own hammers. Ultimately, trade benefits everyone.”

Number three and four were not necessarily shocking to them, but number five is. In a highly competitive monarchal environment trade likely feels like competition. Mercantilism was a trade theory in my old world which believed benefits of trade would come from accumulating wealth through competitive and predatory trade agreements, usually with colonies.

International trade is a lot more complicated than this basic principle that markets are good because more exchange happens. International trade is something that I will likely come back to later.

“Well foreign trade is more complicated than what I’ve presented. Basically, what you need to understand is that specialization is the product of trade and marketplaces. Specialization is good, therefor trade makes everyone better off.”

I don’t really want to get into tariffs right now. Honestly tariffs and trade deficits/surplus’ are kinda annoying to talk about, so I just move on to the next one before they ask any questions I don’t want to talk about the answer to.

Yes I’m lazy, sue me.

“Principle six states markets are usually a good way to organize economic activity. A market economy is an economy that allocates resources through the decentralized decisions of many firms and households. I will get into economic systems later, but this is basically saying that a free market usually creates better outcomes than a centrally planned economy. It is better for households and firms to make production decisions than a government.

Principle seven is that governments can sometimes improve market outcomes. A market failure is a situation where a market allocates resources inefficiently when left on its own. Government decisions can sometimes prevent a market failure or mitigate the damage of one. This principle is essentially stating that government action can create a better outcome than a free market, but not always.”

“How much government interference is good for the economy?” asked Audrey.

“Reasonable minds disagree, ultimately that answer comes down to what you believe is the best outcome. It’s subjective.” I respond.

There are a lot of people who believe their opinions on the economy to be objectively true and believe that everyone else who disagrees with their opinions is stupid. In reality, often times what people are saying will happen is correct, but they disagree on whether the pros outweigh the cons of that outcome.

“Number eight is that a country’s standard of living depends on its ability to produce goods and services. A country that makes a lot of goods can give more to everyone. Country’s that produce more have historically had higher standards of living, lower mortality rates, and overall higher qualities of life.”

“Does this mean that more productive countries are happier?” asked Augustine.

“Not necessarily, you can be poorer than someone else and be happier. There are a lot of examples in my world of poorer countries being happier than richer countries.”

“I see.”

“Number nine is prices rise when the government prints too much money. Inflation happens when prices increase in a country. This is a complex topic that I will get to again later, but essentially printing too much money will only make the currency less valuable.

Number 10 is that a society faces a short-run tradeoff between inflation and unemployment. Why this occurs is complex, and it is a controversial topic among economists. But periods of high inflation have historically been complimented by high employment and vice versa.”

“How are you supposed to manage this if both outcomes are poor?” Juliette asks.

“Economists generally agree that 2-3% inflation is ideal. But in the end sometimes you have to make a difficult decision to eliminate jobs so that inflation can be managed.”

“I see, tradeoffs again.”

“They are everywhere, just like urban planners who fuck up econ 101.”

“I don’t understand?”

“Never mind.”

My joke fell flat huh? That’s to be expected. I decided this was enough for the meeting and Sara and I ran away from there as fast as possible. Aric tried to stop and talk to me, but I dodged him expertly… wait should I have done that? Probably not.

I recently discovered that we were in the Augustinian empire. Apparently, this is the most powerful nation in the world and the epicenter of culture and trade. I decided to head into the town today.

Sara accompanied me along with many guards. A few of them were swordsmen and the other magicians. The city itself is apparently very peaceful, but you can never be too safe.

When I left, some maids stopped me and handed me bags full of cash which were sent by the various leaders of the nation. Well, I can’t complain about that at all can I? If you got showered with money every time you left your home, discord moderators wouldn’t exist, and the world would be a much better place.

The town was beautiful, every street corner was filled with history. Massive religious structures towered high into the sky. Rivers ran through the city carrying many people on boats.

The marketplace was lively, the produce was fresh and free of microplastics. The sewage system was non-existent, but that just added to the charm…. Wait no I was thinking about smell! It smelt like a redditors armpits. It smelt like the taco bell bathroom was turned into an air freshener and sprayed into my fucking eyeballs.

Ok, note to self, build a sewage system before the plague strikes.

“Mil look!” Sara points towards a street performer.

“Oh, sword swallowing. I’ve never seen it in person before.”

The man appeared to be intoxicated, but I imagine he knew what he was doing. He danced around for a bit, balancing the tip of his sword on his finger. He dropped the sword after a few seconds and picked it back up for the main trick.

The big event! The moment we’ve all been waiting for! He put the blade into his mouth and pushed it down. Everyone started clapping once he got it down there.

A scarlet red shot through the air after this. Ah, what a beautiful red mist. He did not in fact know how to sword swallow. He just stabbed himself through his stomach on the main street in front of an audience of children and fucking died.

What a beautiful world.

I looked to my left and it appears Sara was traumatized by this. I decided to take her hand and walk away from there. She did not protest this.

“Hey look! Literally anything else to pay attention to than that corpse! Let’s check it out ok Sara?”

Ah no good, she was still staring at his body. Eventually some guards got there, but he probably died instantly so there was nothing they could do.

The thing I pointed to was a jewelry store. It appeared to be very high end, but luckily my pockets were full of taxpayer money, and I felt great about it. We hate on corrupt politicians a lot, but honestly, now I kind of respect the grind.

Within the case was a beautiful golden and emerald necklace. When I saw it, I realized it was the perfect thing to cheer up Sara who still has the screams of the onlookers echoing in her head.

I bought the necklace immediately and turned around to Sara. When my hands brushed up against her neck she jumped and was brought back to reality instantly. When she saw what I was doing, her face turned as red as the crimson fountain we had just witnessed.

“T-thank you Mil. I-I appreciate it.” She responded to my gesture.

With the necklace now on her, she seemed to forget about that guy entirely. Honestly the extent was kind of freaky.

“So… you seem better.”

“If that sword swallower gets in the way of our special moment I’ll kill him.” She immediately responded… wait what’s that look in her eyes about?

“H-he’s already dead you know…”

“Haha, thank god.”

Wait what the fuck? This girl might not be sane. Well, whatever, sanity is overrated anyways.

We went back to the castle after the jewelry expedition and I went to sleep. The sight of a man shish kabobing himself fresh in my mind.