#incomes

[stoicmike]

You can live very well on little money in the place where no one wants to live — or you can live poorly on a lot of money in the place where everyone wants to live. -- Michael Lipsey

[racefortheironthrone]

What do you think Rhaegar’s income was as the Prince of Dragonstone? What medieval rich dude does he rub shoulders with? The island itself might have some ports, but where did the likely bulk of his wealth come from? Other properties on the main land and a portion from the taxes gathered by the crown? I can’t imagine Aerys was very happy.

That's a great question!

From the bulk of the evidence we get in ACOK, the population and incomes of Dragonstone (which keep in mind comes with overlordship of only a few islands in Blackwater Bay) are decidedly modest, since it can only produce 3,000 men altogether - although there was a period where House Velaryon's commercial wealth would have significantly boosted the income of their royal liege lord.

The flip side is that the demands on the Prince of Dragonstone's purse are relatively modest - because they're not really a military or economic powerhouse, essentially their demesne incomes only really need to support the personal household of the royal heir in adequate levels of royal splendor. Any major project that would require significant expenditures of revenue above the purse of the Prince would likely be funded by asking the Iron Throne to give them some money.

And Rhaegar tended to rub shoulders with the very rich Whents of Harrenhal.

[indizombie]

The trauma of the rural poor has left the elite unmoved. Some even talk of exporting the grain at 'world prices'. Within the country, food prices have shot up. Who talks of 'world prices' for the labour of the Indian peasants or workers? So Indians face world prices, but will nor get world class incomes. In short, globalisation of prices, Indianisation of incomes.

P Sainath, 'Everybody Loves a Good Drought'

[economicsresearch]

page 481 - value attaches to tradition, there is monetary value ascribed to authenticity. A handicraft made by an artisan holds value because it holds a promise that it does not come from destruction and will not be easily destroyed, that it didn’t rely on the abstract structure of a corporation or global trade networks. Implicit within it is a relationship, a person to person feeling that feels right because it is what humans had for millennia until we didn’t and everything became vapor and impossible to grasp. 

A fishing village’s image on wallpaper promises to wrap you in this feeling of people working with people, knowing a place, as you sit alone in your apartment 37 storeys up, where you can catch a glimpse of the water around the edge of the taller tower to your south.

[datarep]

U.S. Income Tax Across Incomes - CA, Single

[economicsresearch]

page 481 - the lines from the mountains, placed into the village, and eventually repeated and rotated, becoming a symbol that finds its way onto traditional tapestries and clothing.

[economicsresearch]

page 481 - here we see the village in happier times, its waterfront a place of bustle and commerce, its sky a place of ships made of clouds. Whether they were a mass hallucination or actual ships made of actual clouds, no one is sure