Money talks in No.6

[fencer_x]

Since it seems there's no simple answer to all of this, I thought I'd open the floor for some discussion: Mainly, how did currency/money/finances work in No.6/West Block?

No. 6 - are all residents of Chronos just pampered, given free homes, and told they don’t have to work anymore all in the hopes of grooming the young’ns to become naive drones serving the city? Did Karan have a job/any income while Shion was growing up? When they got kicked out, how did she afford the bakery in Lost Town? Did she have some savings, or did the city at least give her some kind of “severance” since they obviously weren’t as harsh as they could’ve been with her and Shion for harboring a fugitive. (that also makes me wonder if Shion ever had any further schooling, or does he sit there with the equivalent of a 6th-grade education? [which in No.6 may be like the equivalent of all compulsory education at present, but still])

West Block - so you’ve got your metal coins…but how did that work? Where was the mint? Who decided the value/rates? Was there some banking system? What about exchange with No.6? How did Fura and his ilk pay Rikiga when they came to sleep with Rikiga’s girls? Was there some way to change No.6 money for West Block money? Did Rikiga just accept payment in No. 6 currency and use other ways to smuggle things he wanted out of No.6 to spend that money?

I’m never like, 100% sure of the level of civilization and society in West Block… Rikiga mentions it used to be a more city-like place, so maybe some of these things were established in the past and have broken down now??

Comments

[annamirka]

I could check for references in the novel but, please, don't ask, 'cause i'm too lazy to do it... so i'll go with what i can recall...

are all residents of Chronos just pampered, given free homes, and told they don’t have to work anymore all in the hopes of grooming the young’ns to become naive drones serving the city?

Besides Karan, i remember two Chronos woman: Fura's wife and the old woman Karan speaks about when Lili asked her if she was happy...
"In No. 6, a woman who had given birth but desired to go back to work had an almost-one-hundred-percent chance of obtaining support to achieve it."
From Fura's wife, we learn that women who gave birth can go back to work, but it's not necessary: every parent of a top-ranking child receives a childrearing instruction through a Special Curriculum (vol4ch1), than receive an income, and is up to them to choose to work. For exemple, as a single mother, Karan was focused only on the growth of her son, while we see Fura or the daughter of Karan's old-woman-neighbour working (elite workers, how occupy the highest echlons from the society). I guess parents of a gifted child who are not gifted themself need only to think about their son/daughter growth.



When they got kicked out, how did she afford the bakery in Lost Town? Did she have some savings, or did the city at least give her some kind of “severance” since they obviously weren’t as harsh as they could’ve been with her and Shion for harboring a fugitive.

In the firsts chapters (maybe the 2nd, in a conversion with Safu), Shion said no.6 didn't have a welfare system. Karan, most likely, when they left Chronos didn't had parents anymore (she said her mother was dead 7 or 9 years ago, maybe? can't recall), and no.6 didn't provided help for lost town citizens, but it's possible she had some savings, or else how did she buy that house? (the attual backery was an edil storage, it's said).


Shion ever had any further schooling, or does he sit there with the equivalent of a 6th-grade education?

Shion is attending to some trade courses from Labour Bureau, working at the park to pay his tuition(in ch2 and than repeats the same thing to Fura).


so you’ve got your metal coins…but how did that work? Where was the mint? Who decided the value/rates? Was there some banking system? What about exchange with No.6? How did Fura and his ilk pay Rikiga when they came to sleep with Rikiga’s girls? Was there some way to change No.6 money for West Block money? Did Rikiga just accept payment in No. 6 currency and use other ways to smuggle things he wanted out of No.6 to spend that money?

Fura had on him 5 gold coins, and Inukashi bribes Getsuyaku with gold coins as well. Nezumi had gold coins savings, like the coins of the meat shopper found by Inukashi after the hunt(or meybe he had sinver, i can't recall). The whore who kissed Shion asked 1 silver coin, Inukashi asked silver coins to Nezumi and to Rikiga for water/food, so it's the same currency (and don't forget Inukashi pays for the leftovers from the Correctional Facility).

My guess is that there's a common currency all over the world, since the Babilon Treaty made of all the 6 city a unique nation.


Resident in West Block are not always the same. West Block is a place where people keeps flowing, keeps coming. When Fura said west Block population was growing, i don't think he was talking about births, so people comes here from all around the planet, gathering outside in hopes to gain the entrance.

[analineblue]

I think as far as Karan goes, and the bakery, I've always thought that the whole set up in Lost Town was some kind of severance type thing. I assumed that she didn't work while they were living in Chronos, but I always wondered if the bakery and her having to work for a living in Lost Town was viewed as a sort of punishment in the eyes of those running No.6 (who seem to believe that the pinnacle of success in life was to either be raised as or raise an elite?). So by sending them to Lost Town, I wonder if it was kind of like "here, run this place and see how you do" - a sort of "sink or swim", "we don't really care but we're casting you out" sort of thing?

And with the coins, I could definitely see them being a holdover from when the West Block wasn't so run down. *nod* And I always assumed that whatever was in circulation was all there was. Definitely not that there was some place still minting them...

But that's all just my personal speculation, I suppose. ;)

[amielleon]

Pampered, well. I think Asano probably mean t it to be more relateable than that. I think the idea of Chronos essentially draws from the idea of a scholarship, except said scholarship begins at age two and covers at least one (female?) family member, and their housing facilities are way cooler than dorms.

Also yeah, what Annamirka said, Shion had some trade schooling. Although given what Safu was presenting at school in sixth grade, I'd say it's as good as a college prep high school education in your major. (The humanities, though, forget it.)

The incredible amount of exchange between No. 6 and the West Block says to me that the coins in West Block were probably antiquated money originally from No. 6. I think it's mentioned somewhere that money in No. 6 is mostly handled electronically through your bracelet and somesuch... but, okay, you could say that maybe Fura has the means to exchange his money into weird forms, but what about the janitor Inukashi bribes? The fact that rather low-level citizens of No. 6 have a use for these things say to me that there's something they could do with them. And if these coins were West Block exclusive, I'd think that the janitor would be in a lot of danger trying to even sell them for the value of their metal. (Unless he's also a secret hobbyist jeweler or something, but come on.) So, I think coin money is still accepted in some low-class areas of No. 6, and it's the remnants of the old form of money.

I think it's easier to believe that it was also the currency in the West Block, since that'd make their abundance and establishedness more natural.

[annamirka]

The fact that rather low-level citizens of No. 6 have a use for these things say to me that there's something they could do with them.

Karan speak about children going to her bakery with coins in their hands, so it's still there (Lili is one of them).