"Well, there's one more step to it. Essentially, the world used to be a place where what people had made through their own labors, represented a huge fraction of people's wealth. But think about the mask you're wearing now: it keeps you ventilated and comfortable and safe from illnesses and reveals your entire face, just imagine how valuable this would be to those suffering through a deadly plague killing thousands. But in a very real sense, it's not something you can really take.

A farmer, by himself, makes grain. If you seize it, or burn down the farm, he can still make, more or less, as much grain next year and this. But coercing people into creating the huge number of complicated and interlocking parts in the mask over your face, that's essentially just as difficult as doing the work of every one of the hundreds of people that are needed to put it together. If you force a farmer into growing you grain, that is far less work than doing it by your own hands. But forcing someone to follow the innumerable steps required for making the mask you're walking in, that's really not much less work than putting it together yourself. And certainly more work than buying it honestly. When your wealth is in the form of inventions coming from knowledge inside the heads of hundreds of people, it no longer becomes the kind of loot that an army can seize."

"...okay, but there must still be rare raw materials, right? And - differences of opinion about governance tradeoffs?

I can see how freer polities eventually outcompete other people on technology, assuming they can bear the overheads for long enough for it to pay off, but don't they still compete over, I guess not literally mithril mines, but whatever your equivalent is?

And if not that, over things like, where people should sit on the action versus risk tradeoff? If you think someone else is being unacceptably profligate with globally scarce resources, or risking global catastrophe, you might still go to war over that - you can stop them doing the bad thing even if you can't usefully coerce this generation of their engineers.

I think what you've actually got is some kind of stalemate where nobody can win so nobody tries anything because everyone else would make sure anyone using force of arms will lose?"

"Your stalemate where nobody wins sounds like a less flattering way of making quite a similar argument, yes. To talk of something else: using a chamber pot and that tiny table and everything else seems like it'd be really annoying for you. Do you want somewhere to live by yourself? You could very much afford to live somewhere much nicer than me, with what you're being paid to talk about your unique past."

She doesn't want to seem ungrateful, but also he's probably finding it annoying to share as well...

"Oh! Yes, if you can show me how to go about it, it would be nice to not have to constantly deal with taking this on and off when I'm just trying to get some water or go to the loo..."

"Yeah, that'd be miserable. I can show you around some of the other places to live early tomorrow?"

Ron decides to spend the day together with Judith, showing her some roomier places where she'd finally be able to walk around without having to constantly take her PPE on and off again. At her budget, they could absolutely afford someplace properly big, high-up and spacious.

"That's... too big," said Judith, tentatively, at the first walk through. "I'd feel like I was eating alone in an entire communal dining room..."

"Huh, you're wanting something relatively smaller? Then I think you should try a pinnacle unit; it's on the level directly under the rooftop park, so you can just take the stairs up and end up in your own park. Really sounds like something you'd really appreciate, and their smaller sizes maybe wouldn't be a big tradeoff for you."

"Yes, that sounds more like it...

How long term is this apartment arrangement? I guess it might be unusual here, but I'm not used to living alone - obviously I want to right now, for quarantine reasons and I don't really know anyone..." 

"Long term? Well, you tend to pay for them one month at a time, if that was your question. They're not actually allowed to let you have an arrangement lasting over 99 years after the apartment's built, though, but I don't think that'll be relevant."

"How far away are we looking? If you don't mind, I'd quite like to be close by, at least for the next month while we're still sorting finances? I know the cars are quite fast, so that might not be all that limiting?

Is it just we're looking at places that are, uh, quick and flexible to move into, or does everything get torn down every century? I guess if you learn new ways to build things all the time and materials are cheap..."

"I didn't think about distance at all, I thought that the cars would be fast enough or that you wouldn't need my help too often. But sure, I can limit it to places that are fairly close. Things don't get torn down every century, it's just that, after 99 years, the owner can demolish your house and you have 0 say, you don't have an arrangement. But there are people living in 130, 140 year old buildings, although most people would prefer an upgrade before then."

"I guess I'm used to, well, our chapterhouse is well over five hundred years old? So either you move into a bit of something like that, or, I guess the League do rebuild things, but normally because they've caught fire or flooded or fallen down?

I hope I won't need to keep bothering you too much, I can probably work things out with - oh, do all these places come with access to the, projector and - helper setup?" They hadn't liked the word 'servant' much before, even though Mr H was clearly a servant. 

"Yep, 1 projector and one Mr H for every unit! A few of the bigger ones, for extended families and such, actually have more than one. You should probably get a phone, as well. But I'll just send you one via cargo drone."

"Okay, what have we got in pinnacle units? It feels weird planning to spend a lot of money, but I guess most problems are solved here so there isn't something else very useful to do with it?

I kind of feel like I need to be more - oriented - to what I've got coming in, what I can reasonably expect going forwards, and how that compares to these, rent numbers?"

"Well, this pinnacle unit has an ultra-nice, huge bathroom? With multiple showerheads, and a huge pool, and it's near the windows so you maximize that openness feeling? Or there's this one, with an in-unit gym, and a super-nice lounge area, and it's fairly close to a lake with fantastic opportunities for diving, artificial coral reefs and treasure chest hunts and all that?

What you're getting right now, that's around 20 times what these cost. And I feel, that if you manage to write books and stay fairly popular, and you did tons of interviews and things, you'd be making 4 or 5 times as much as these cost? But that's really subjective. I think you should put everything you make, above living expenses and rent for one of these pinnacle units, into an annuity, where you pay in advance to get money back for the rest of your life. I think that should help you, if you're worried about the sustainability of living here. Basically, build up your annuity, and see how far that early rush of interview money can take you. That's my advice."

"...shower heads kind of confuse me," Judith admits. "I still think instead of these huge places I just want, like, an inn suite - a bedroom with enough room for a writing desk, a bathroom with a nice tub? I guess the writing desk and projector set up could be in another room if they're all like that.

Then I can work out what I actually want in a place without using up much money on the way there. If I was rich at home, I'd want, like, a live-in cook, but I guess you usually use delivery for all that, given it's so quick?"

"Hmm, I don't think pinnacle suites go that small? But I'll try to see how close I can get; they tend to be a bit smaller, and once in a while, you find a building where they really split that pinnacle suite into many smaller, single-person units. Unfortunately, there's a good chance that it'd end up a fair distance away from here. But let's try this one? Fairly compact, divider bath, main room on the smaller side. And it's not even too far from here."

"...that is not a 'nice tub', that looks like something I need a ladder to get out of! Presumably it fills quicker than I'm expecting?

...can you humour me a moment, and show me some actually cheap properties? Or do you do that by sharing one massive one, and these are the smallest single person units?"

"Well, sure. Let my try showing you some actually cheap properties. You're right that sharing one property over several people will ultimately be the cheapest option, but well. These properties are way on the outskirts of town, near the ground floor, compact main room, bedroom only mildly bigger than the bed, shower, sink and toilet in a small rectangular room, not even a bath to sit down in. This city was built fairly recently; that's about the cheapest units the builders thought anyone would want to live in."

"Okay. So I definitely want a bath, although not, like, actually a swimming pool, and I probably want to be able to keep my clothes in the bedroom, so I wouldn't want the absolute cheapest place...

Why doesn't anyone want to be on the ground floor? It's not like you can see all that much than the next apartment building... I guess if things don't catch on fire much and the lifts keep working it's not so much of a problem, but I'm not sure why it's a selling point, except for the places right by a park."

"Well, people like the feeling of being high in the sky. It feels so outdated, almost, to be near the ground? You're right, it honestly is really arbitrary and doesn't make much sense." 

"So, what does something with a decent bath, but not acres of empty floor space or particularly high up, look like?"

"Well, there's a slightly nicer unit near the edge of town? If you go one floor up, you can get a unit with a normal tub. It sounded like you really didn't like the divider bath idea. A lot of other people don't like it, either. Presumably, that's enough for a decent bath?"

"Yeah, I'm sure the divider bath is perfectly fine, but I'm kind of at the top of my weird things tolerance as it is, a nice comprehensible bath tub that looks something vaguely like what I expect is helpful.

What's the price difference between that and something closer in? I suppose with the cars and the lack of bandits or other external threats, that's just a status thing too, though, exact location?"

"The price difference is maybe 15-20%? And, well, it's not just a status thing, there's also a convenience advantage. And we didn't tell you this, but cars aren't actually very cheap; but yes, exact location doesn't matter much."