What Would Superpowered Beings Do To The Economy?

I got to thinking while trying to get something of my own going what such beings would do to the global economy?

We got superpowers that can be purposed for lots of purposes from being able to melt stuff all the way to literally create anything that can persist with a mere thought. The only things I can really think of are putting a bunch of people out of jobs, make the job market more fierce and possibly devaluing materials that would otherwise be rare to being worthless.

As for other effects it could have on societies all over and the social fallout, I'm still spinning my wheels.

Drop in the bucket. Individuals with weird abilities aren't scalable. Companies that already do the things the power is useful for will hire them and increase productivity at one location; and that's the best case scenario where liability issues don't prevent hiring these people at all. The economy would potentially be very affected by the impact supers would have on warfare, but that's really a whole other discussion

There would need to be a lot of them, or a complimentary team of Super Geniuses/Super Engineers to put their powers to work. If someone invented an eternal battery, and then had Superman spin a turbine for a few hours at impossible speeds, we could have free energy for the planet, for example.

Otherwise, I imagine a Supes-tier heroes could pop out and kill all warlords, dictators, and despots in the world in an afternoon, essentially ending the business of war overnight… Well, it should do that, but we'd probably just have the same problem we'd had for eternity, and a new asshole would take their place, or some foreign power would put a new puppet in place.

Wouldn't living in a city with alot of supers be cheap as fuck? Due to the constant threats and destruction lowering property value? I think Astro City highlighted that before.

Off the top of my head, Vegas, Mecau, the gambling industry in general would have hire capes to detect other capes, or be farmed relentlessly.


Full Metal Alchemist or similar. Maybe not so much silver and gold, but rhodium, palladium, platinum, etc nosedive.. Even if it's outlawed to use powers to make resources out of thin air, such powers would inevitably have an inflationary effect on such goods.


Sure, if you don't mind living in a bombed-out war-zone. The housing industry has to make back the money it invests in buildings, and if those apartments don't have a long enough life-expectancy to make that money, then why would anyone make that investment? And think of the insurance premiums.

Once had an idea for a Mutants and Masterminds antagonist that was a robot who knew their power to generate metal would crash the world economy if made public and used that knowledge to blackmail the heroes into keeping their conflict private.

Didn't use them because, aside from a final death from self sacrifice during a teamup against a worse bad guy (robot calculated heroes living had a slightly better chance of its noble goals happening than it did), I couldn't figure out how to keep it beat without giving it a reason to pull that nuclear option.

I figured you might need a bunch of them (just one or two, even at absurd levels of power) wouldn't be enough to unhinge things. I think back to how the worlds of Marvel and DC have a lot of these people buzzing around and the most they really do with these abilities is beat people up. Nothing grand that would change the world forever and make Earth nothing like we know it (but this is a massive issue with both DC & Marvel wanting to be "relateable" at the price of dragging down the storytelling and wold building.


Even if it was, I wouldn't want to live their.

That's what I would see. In order for an economic crisis not to collapse things, the economy would need to shift in a way to accommodate this new reality they'd have to face; but I'm no economist, so I'm not the least bit sure how practical that would be or if it could survive such a task.

Even ruling out possible elemental transmutation powers turning lead to gold or something, squeezing coal into diamonds, or powering a city off a super, like Walt Simonson did with Orion or Frank Miller did with Barry Allen, or Dr. Manhattan trying to invent cold fusion, I'd think precogs would mess with the stock exchange and gambling, and you'd probably have the occasional technological breakthrough from mad scientists and supergeniuses.
I should think biotech and genetics would be a real goldmine, with supers being exploited for medicines and drugs, like Vanilla Cupcake and Cherry Jubilee being hooked up to glandular taps to use their mind-controlling pheromones to scent a line of dolls in Destroyer Duck, or Ultra being killed for his pineal gland, to manufacture Cherenkov-Kirby reactors in Spinnerette, to Private Eye recruiting sidekicks to harvest their organs in Marshall Law.
Genosha used to be basically run on mutant slave labour.
Ghost had a superhuman porn industry.
There were a few supers with serious product endorsements, like Booster Gold, Choice, Rubber Johnny, Youngblood, and Captain Amazing.
Skullomania, Dollar Bill and Captain Avenger started as corporate mascots.
Also, there's the possibility of supers going into politics, like Mandala or Super-President, or just taking over, like Miracleman or Squadron Supreme.

Wonder if healers would be forced to work, officially. They absolutely would be forced to work for anyone who could force them. I can only imagine the the ones who don't have enough personal firepower would inevitably be forced to work for cape organizations/gangs/syndicates, one way or another.


Jesus Christ how horrifying, aren't there enough r-selected retards already? Do you want retards with super-powers?
Like Saddam and Gaddafi. I suppose Venezuela probably would be better off without Maduro, but there'd be the same power vacuum, and nothing else would have really changed. And just imagine the the Korean peninsula if Captain Flying Brick turning Dear Leader Kimmy into pavement pizza.
The guy who can easily kill the other guy is the one in power. Realistically, a Justice League would be The Authority by default when it comes down to business. Any politician allowed to lead a country instead of them would still have to take the big boys into account in policies.


Already done. You can cremate your dead dog and have the ashes turned into a diamond. Completely indistinguishable from naturally formed diamond.
Hold your kidneys tight, men in tights.
Gurochan would finally have live-action porn.

But couldn't warlords and despots have their own super-goons to defend them? Or wouldn't super-villains take over those positions?

depends on the level of moralfaggotry or edge the super dudes have

The weapons industry would skyrocket

What, the small-arms? What would be the chances of more gun legalization?
I can certainly see a boost in more specialized weapons.

Unless it's an illegal organization, why would governments force healers into healing? It goes against western philosophy.

Because nobody wants to die? If you have the choice between forcing some guy at gunpoint to spend five minutes curing your ass cancer, or die, what do you choose?
Are you having a giggle, m8?

Sorry, I think I ( ) misunderstood. But seriously, they could just call it a public health obligation or some shit, and who would stand up for the healers? Plenty of people who probably be all for it. I can only see other capes emphasizing and be willing to protect squishy healers.

empathise
Fuck me

They would become the government, and the worldwide return of Royalty and Warrior-Nobility would make several groups shit bricks.

If you get injured and a doctor is near you, he doesn't have to do anything.

Plenty of shit modern medicine can't cure. Terminal wards are still a thing.

There seems to be an implication that a superhuman would want to do super amounts of work for a long period of time, instead of just jacking off to anime or whatever it is they want to do with their time.

Even if you're omnipotent that doesn't mean you want to spend your time filing someone's bank notes and washing windows at super speed.

Generating rare materials would only have a negative effect on the people trying to stockpile them as an "investment". It wouldn't have any effect on normal people except that the world economy has deliberately been plugged in to the personal fortunes of select billionaires.

If they don't go "OY VEY SHUT IT DOWN" then elemental alchemy is really just a normal technological change like shale oil extraction massively increasing the oil supply (which oil cartels really did try to shut down) or artificial diamonds (which the DeBeers cartel is still doing their absolute best to suppress).


It would make a change from the current aristocratic model at least.

And how would that affect the economy?
If you had the power(s), and the inclination to take territory, what would be your economic plan?

I know I'd start by cutting the welfare in my own country substantially, and completely cut off third world charity.
If feasible, put a ceiling on how much money an individual can make off their business by twelve-times the pay of their average employee, Henry Ford style. But that would be a long-term goal.
Unemployment from increasing automation and globalization is the big issue. I can only think of population control to deal with this.

i get the feeling healers would wind up pretty much slaves. Cant defend themselves against stronger heroes who would likely hunt them down.

Goverments would heavily desire them to keep the rich and average populus alive. And they would never be allowed to be free too risky.

One ploitician gets cancer and any healer can literally offer to heal him in exchange for some serious favors. All theyd have to do is wait for someone to get sick and they could possibly start ww3.

Maybe like a hero church could take them all in as long as they swear to be neutral. And heal all they can no matter what but thats jus me being optimistic no powermad goverment would allow this.

Similarly, the Welfare state in the Western World would not be so damaging if it was exclusively for the benefit and use of Whites peoples.

Feminism, Chemical Birth Control, Mass Divorce and little marriage? Again, a temporary problem, a temporary dropoff. It mostly self selects shitty women out of the gene pool anyways without forced Eugenics. Without massive foreign invasion, its just a small contraction, little else. In the age of the machine gun, and the atom bomb, sheer numbers isnt as important as it used to be.


My economic policies would be much later, as I focused on dejewing and deshitskinning America.

Wage a short war, raise an armed force, secure the core of American power, the Atlantic Coast and the Mississippi River basin. Segregate the Blacks, evacuate vulnerable whites, remove all Muslims and Spics and Curryniggers. Shove them into Mexio for all I care. Make giant laundry list of Academia and the Media, round up the Jews and send them off to Israel. Shoot some of them. Once thats done and armed militias are keeping niggers in their pens, move on and reconquer the MidWest and the West, from Texas to South Dakota. Do the same for everything up to the Qest Coast of California, Washington and Oregon. Then forciboy reconquer it and drive all the Spics to Mexico. And then hand a note of annexation to Canada, and begin expelling ethnic chinese and curryniggers and muslims..


Give it a while, then embark on a 20 year project of peacefully and sanely sending all Ameriniggers to Liberia, recolonizing it and driving the hordes of dumb ape people out..


After that? After the kikes and their pawns and their sycophants are largely named, expelled or killed? Just keep on eye on things and help out here and there and otherwise let things take their course.


The only non North American foreign conquest I would bother with is Southern Africa. Make a Nice straight line that is easy to defend, slay every nigger there.

Then Id allow 100 million Northern Europeans to immigrate. British Isles, Low Countires, Germany, Scandiland and colonies, Poland, Baltic States and Finland. And maybe some Russians and Czechs. Then slam the border shut, and give very few shits indeed. Smugfke weapons into Europe to assist. But thats it.

I think you're lost… >>>Holla Forums is that way.