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

[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).