Manna

The Post-Capital Society of Union and the Core Worlds

Union is not motivated by the desire or institutional momentum to accrue currency and capital, and neither are the Metropolitan peoples of the Core worlds. The society Union has built is structured around galvanizing missions, personal pursuits, and a deep cultural belief in solidarity, democratic progress, and mutual aid – its closest analog is a kind of participatory planning forecast. For these reasons, the function of economies on Core worlds are not predicated upon the ups and downs of a market economy model. In fact, the word “economy” is only understood as a historical, antiquated concept, only to be used when interacting with Diasporan worlds.
The average Metropolitan views individual capital ownership and the exchange of currency for goods as relics of an unsustainable past – relics that plunged humanity into thousands of years of self-inflicted darkness, violence, and misery. Such that property is a concept, there is of course personal property; but private property – that is, ownership that generates profit – is alien to your average Metropolitan.

The Standardized Galactic Currency of Union

Regardless, Union recognizes that not all of its client states have yet become post-capital societies. In the interest of fostering fair galactic trade and building shared consciousness – rather than violently suppressing monetization – Union recognized early the need for a standardized galactic currency: manna.
To create manna, Union uses complex treaties and client-facing economic structures to extract an abstracted unit of value from its subject states. Data, raw materials, human potential – tens of thousands of factors go into the creation of a single omni-digital unit of manna. Specific oversight of the creation, flow, amount, value of mana and many other considerations falls to the UEB – the Union Economic Bureau.
In simple terms, the exchange rate of manna is relative to the currency for which it is being exchanged. Wealthy, advanced worlds are rich in manna as a result of their massive output, the raw human potential of their populations, and many other factors. Small Colonies also benefit from manna’s formulas: their projected development, access to raw materials, and so on all contribute to beneficial exchange value.
Cosmopolitans trade in manna, as do states and any other entities that engage in trade between solar systems. Since most people are still bound to their homeworlds (or Stations, moons, etc.), the vast bulk of humanity still uses local currencies, only encountering manna if they do business off-world (or with parties located off-world).

Item type

Currency & Deeds