Star Wars economics

[fbhjr]

When we drove down to Florida last month palusbuteo and I had a
long talk about the economics of Star Destroyers from the Star Wars movies.
If you actually look at how well they do their job in the movies, they are
abysmal. Movie after movie, they can’t stop smaller ships from zipping
past them and going where they want. And, at least once a bunch of those
smaller ships take out the big ones by ganging up on it.
Clearly the money spent on a Star Destroyer would be much better spent on
buying a fleet of those little ships that can hop across the galaxy in a
short time on their own.

Of course the make up of the fleet has more to do with the Emperor and his
“let’s be big an scary” mode of operation than actual efficiency. That’s a
political decision, not economic.

Along these lines, I’ve also been wondering: who pays the Jedi Knights?

I’m sure they’ve got some vow of poverty and only own their lightsaber and
the robes on their backs.
But, that temple is huge! And, in prime real estate of the capitol!
They’ve got to heat it, keep the lights on, feed the Jedi, buy them star
ships, etc.

So, who pays for all that?

The Jedi seem to take orders from the Senate, so maybe they’re the ones who
foot the bills?

That’s an interesting implication.
The Galactic Senate has a private army of made up of a religious order of
super soldiers on retainer to “keep the peace”.

I can see why the Emperor’s pitch to people that an arrangement like that
is bad could be accepted.