Money Flow (rd)?

[charkzilla20]

So, we know that:

-Applejack manages a farm and sells apples

-Rarity makes and sells fancy clothes

-Pinkie makes and sells sweets (I guess)

-Twi runs the library, and probably collects overdue money (lol especially from me)

-Fluttershy does some stuff with domesticated animals, probably raises and sells them / petstore

So does RD get paid for doing weather duty?

Seems like the characters in the show like to spend a lot of money, especially Pinkie on balloons. How do you guys think the characters could get money? Pony stocks?

[FermataTheBasse]

Does Fluttershy get payed to do what she does? It's implied that she's more of an animal shelter than anything else. She might be a government worker, in that case. Twi might be in a similar boat to Fluttershy, but remember that she's a student more than anything else. She'd be the counterpart of someone on earth earning a graduate degree.

Pinkie is employed by the Cakes to work in Sugarcube Corner.

Rainbow is probably payed for weather duty.

As for costs, I'm not so sure. Do all of the ponies really own that much? Twilight got the library by Celestia's influence, most likely; Rarity is a business mare who has made significant sales in the past (Hoity Toity, Sapphire Shores) so she probably has the cash. As for Pinkie, she either: is given her room in Sugarcube Corner as part of her job, so she's free to spend most of her money on party supplies; or she's Pinkie and money does not apply to her. And the other mares don't seem to be especially flush with material possessions.

A pony stock market would make for an interesting concept... For Canterlot RP, perhaps...?

[Thoth]

While I'd love a nice explanation for how money talks in Equestria....I really can't help but feel stocks and the stock market would be completely out-of-place to explore.

It's the equivalent of that old Superman game on the NES making the stock market a PLOT POINT in a game. Friends and neighbors, kids DO NOT care about stocks.

[Rosewind]

I think Equestria has a pretty robust economy, as pony society has upper (Canterlot) and middle/lower classes (Ponyville). We also have characters that were briefly discussing the scope of their business, such as Filthy Rich.

[ping111]

NO.

STOCKS.

EVER.

I went on another RP with a stock system.

I currently own 4.5 trillion dollars.

You know what I owned the day before?

16 million.

Stock markets are stupid.

brought to you by the Communist Party.

[Parker_Izing]

I believe she gets paid, but the money plummets when she places it in the nightstand of her cloud house...

[ping111]

I believe she gets paid, but the money plummets when she places it in the nightstand of her cloud house...

I have a book about just that! Except with a book.

Raimbow Dash Goes to the Chiropractor.

Ignore the title, because it hasn't come into play yet.

[Lerian]

Rarity and AJ get paid for their products, fashion and apple related.

Pinkie either gets paid by the cakes for helping out or sells her own products and pays a bit of rent to her surrogate family to help out. Alternatively party organiser!

Twilight gets paid by the government, or Celestia herself, for her ongoing studies in friendship and/or as a grant to further herself as a useful magical prodigy.

RD is either paid directly by the Ponyville council to administer their weather, or she is paid by the Cloudsdale council who themselves receive money from all the towns and cities they provide weather services for.

Fluttershy is independently wealthy or receives money from a wealthy family to support her unpaid animal care, which is also why she has a skewed attitude to wealth as shown in 'Putting your hoof down'

SEE MY MIGHTY HEADCANNON!

NO.

STOCKS.

EVER.

'Astrid', 'Brony123' and 'BiggestLunafan' received warnings for insider trading....

[FermataTheBasse]

...

_{^{Why all the stock hate?}}

[tacobob]

I still think Rainbow Dash gets all her extra bits from her rich unseen folks..That gal is living in a palace in the sky!

[ShadowWalking18]

Fluttershy coming from a wealthy family!?! Possible....we don't know much of her background and would make sense as I doubt she would charge to care for animals.

What I would love is a bit more info on the economy of Equestria, though I can make a few guesses to a few things.

First: Gems are probably relativly worthless*maybe a few RARE ones will have a high price* I say this because one gems seem to be easily found in Equestria, or at least near ponyville but that is beside the case. If gems did have a value they probably wouldn't be so willing to put them into various things like Rarity covering hundreds of clothes with them, or the Cakes putting some into a cupcake for Spike. So odds are gems are just a pretty decoration item more then anything else save for maybe a few rare pieces that can be sold for a high price.

Second: Bits, which is the money of Equestria, seem to be the common currency and they are coins made from no doubt some sort of precious metal like gold, silver and perhaps copper. Now if this is the case it can be assumed that rare metals like gold, silver, and copper have a value with copper probably being the lowest but most commonly used, silver being more valuable and rarer but not uncommon to see every so often, and gold being the most valuable and perhaps only used by the rich mostly.

Or it is also possible that bits work on a number system, where the higher the number the more expensive it is. Now I can't really say how that system works and what numbers would be expensive and which wouldn't, but if we look back to putting your hoof down episode we can see that twenty bits would be an extreme price for certain items*CHERRIES! ARE YOU SERIOUS HOW DARE HE TRY TO SCAM FLUTTERSHY!*

[ShadowWalking18]

I still think Rainbow Dash gets all her extra bits from her rich unseen folks..That gal is living in a palace in the sky!

That could be just ordinary architecture, but it might not. The thought of Rainbow Dash actually being the daughter of some wealth parents might explain why she is reluctant to wear as she would say 'girly' clothes as she was probably forced to wear them alot when she was younger. You know because she has to maintain the apperance of a polite and charming lady of society.

[charkzilla20]

{Deleted post}

[Thoth]

content removed

...Did you feel the need to bring that up? I mean, on a forum where kids are, no less?

[charkzilla20]

All right, lets delete the posts then k?

[Starfox64x]

{Deleted post}

(keep that in the 18+ area... It's my domain, i know what goes there =P might be fun to talk about that idea there...)

...

_{^{Why all the stock hate?}}

I shall defend the stock debate!

Obviously the apple family is a very large business, with all the family members having their own orchards around Equestria... and it would be benificial for ponies to invest into Apple Stock... and it would make sense that it would go up and down depending on the supply and deman of said product... I imagine during the SSCS9000 bit, their stocks plummetted for a day when people heard that the farm might be taken away (Everyone selling their stocks before they lost value) but once the incident was over i'm sure they jumped back up since this season they had enough cider for every pony this time.

And that's just the Apple business... I'm sure the Cakes have stock options even though they're a small business, they seem to push towards some pretty large events like the dessert competition, so they must be a growing business that can take risks like that thanks to investments.

As for the mystery of Fluttershy, she's obviously good with pet care and whatnot, taking care of Opal and cleaning her, the Pheonix, the little mouse with a cast, so i'm sure she's essentially the vet of Ponyville... just kinda unofficially...

And dash, weather pony who gets paid by the government... overpaid i might add... how else would she afford that sky mansion while doing little to no work?

[charkzilla20]

(keep that in the 18+ area... It's my domain, i know what goes there =P might be fun to talk about that idea there...)

I'm on the app, can u send me a link via pm.

EDIT: NVM FOUND IT HEHE

[weesh]

There is nothing intrinsically wrong with stocks. I like the idea of investing in companies (new ones especially), and such investors are entitled to a payoff if the company succeeds. Sure there is abuse and leeches, but much of it is good.

The biggest question to me is how the macro economy works. If there is a trade imbalance in a region, bad things can happen. What flows into and out of ponyville? Probably apples are local because there are competing farms in every city. I get the impression that the fashion industry is mostly local, with a bit of export. What is ponyville's primary contribution to Equestria? I can't think of anything. They are obviously consuming things from outside the village (there is no industry to speak of), so there must be something or it would slide slowly into poverty.

And dash, weather pony who gets paid by the government

That is possible. It is not a very satisfying answer to the inflow of money, but it could be part of it. Afterall, the results of perfect weather on crops is undeniably good.

[FermataTheBasse]

Actually good weather would be important as hell. Why else would so many ancient cultures have whole religions based on getting good weather for their harvests? The supply chain's even been touched upon in a way during the Hearth's Warming Eve episode.

Glad to see stocks are back in consideration.

I think we have to bear in mind with the overall economic picture that there are two literal deities overseeing all of Equestria. I'm sure their hands could 'correct' the market whenever it goes out of whack.

Hm. Equestria could well be a capitalist's dream if that were the case.

[weesh]

Hm. Equestria could well be a capitalist's dream if that were the case.

Wow, can you imagine the economic bubbles in a utopia? Their rise and collapse would be LEGENDARY.

[Ashton]

On Topic:

Flutters cares for the animals out of her own pocket, she does other things like grooming (she delivers opal to rarity in one epp) which she is likely paid for, and like the rest she doesnt seem to have a lot of bills... (though I wont rule out wealthy relatives, I really dont know why but something about flutters, to me, says "yeah, she might" as opposed to any of the others where it feels unlikely)

Dash is a weatherpony, she's specifically stated it's her job, so she gets paid for it, and she's quite possibly the head weatherpony in ponyville, given all her free time and the events of HF (though she might just be a natural born leader so she gets assigned all the duties) Though this begs the question of wheather she gets hourly, salelried, or some kind of "per cloud" type pay... if she's sallaried or paid per-cloud then it explains all her free time and why she rushes through it, if she's paid hourly either management is VERY lax or she's cheating the system...

Twilight is a librarian she's pocketing the late fees! (j/k)

The other 3 seem to be covered nicely so I wont reiterate them.

There are common gems and rare gems. Spike's Fire Ruby was clearly rare given both his AND rarity's sentiments over it. I'm sure there are others as well. Also I'm in with whoever said gold/silver/copper are probably valuable, since we dont see a lot of random gold dishes/decoration/etc that we'd surely see if it was common.

I still think Rainbow Dash gets all her extra bits from her rich unseen folks..That gal is living in a palace in the sky!

When you can make and shape clouds in your free time (which Dash clearly has plenty of considering how much she naps) she probably built it up over the years and just got bored eventually. Given that she's close friends with AJ-the-earth-pony I would feel it's hard to believe she's not lived in PV for a long time.

That could be just ordinary architecture, but it might not. The thought of Rainbow Dash actually being the daughter of some wealth parents might explain why she is reluctant to wear as she would say 'girly' clothes as she was probably forced to wear them alot when she was younger. You know because she has to maintain the apperance of a polite and charming lady of society.

I still think she's an orphan and had to be 'tough' or get picked on. And really we only see 1 time she's opposed to girly clothes (I want to say SotC) where rarity REALLY went crazy, and I think any of them would have not wanted to wear that outfit... she had zero problems with her gala dress (even if her personal design wasn't even a dress at all) and her only complaint about the dress in ACW was that it as not aerodynamic, which I feel is a legitimate concern for a pegasus and not a blatant indicator of her tomboyish nature (though I will also entertain that she was using that as an excuse because she didnt want to wear it - she seemed prety happy though in the scene where she's picked as one of the new bridesmaids, so...)

[FermataTheBasse]

Wow, can you imagine the economic bubbles in a utopia? Their rise and collapse would be LEGENDARY.

Legend- wait for it...

It would probably be so mundane it wouldn't even be funny. The good thing about reality is that it's realistic.

...

-Dary. Legendary.

[elsporko]

Fluttershy is independently wealthy or receives money from a wealthy family to support her unpaid animal care, which is also why she has a skewed attitude to wealth as shown in 'Putting your hoof down'

She doesn't have a skewed attitude towords wealth, she is a doormat who is unable to stand up for herself and negotiate a fair deal.

I think she has a goverment job. Animals can't care for themselves outside of the Everfree forest. She appears to be employed with that task and getting them homes. We also know she took the official bunny census.

[weesh]

She also does pet sitting and grooming.

[Lerian]

There is nothing intrinsically wrong with stocks. I like the idea of investing in companies (new ones especially), and such investors are entitled to a payoff if the company succeeds. Sure there is abuse and leeches, but much of it is good.

The biggest question to me is how the macro economy works. If there is a trade imbalance in a region, bad things can happen. What flows into and out of ponyville? Probably apples are local because there are competing farms in every city. I get the impression that the fashion industry is mostly local, with a bit of export. What is ponyville's primary contribution to Equestria? I can't think of anything. They are obviously consuming things from outside the village (there is no industry to speak of), so there must be something or it would slide slowly into poverty.

Some of the things that have come up in the show imply it could be an agricultural base. Not on the massive scale that exists in the real world but from memory:

- Apples

- Truffles

- Wool

- Dairy products

- Eggs

- Zap-apple jam seems to be a specialist product that only exists in Ponyville, rarity can lead to expense. (I'm sure Rarity can lead to expense as well...)

- Edible flowers and carrots have also been seen in production.

Obviously I'm not saying that Fluttershy's egg production is supporting the whole economy but if she can do it then other ponies could do it, possibly on a larger scale (Well howdy Twilight, I'm Eggyolk and I'd like to introduce y'all to the egg family...)

Rarity exports her fashions and as she does not seem to produce all of the raw materials directly she would have to pay for import production and transport.

Depending on the size of the hydroelectric dam, could Ponyville be a mass exporter of electricity?

Could money be bought in by government or corporate research grants, both from the Everfree forest itself and the old palace? What would be the cost of mounting an archaeological exploration and cataloguing session of the old palace? (If you didn't want to, you know, just ask Princess Celestia who was there?)