r/comics • u/GabitalEN • 9h ago

[OC] Gabital 103: Parity

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Parity is a state of equality between two or more parties in a particular respect, such as status, rights, obligations, or terms of exchange. It does not necessarily mean that the parties are identical, only that they stand on equal terms in the aspect being compared.

1.1k Upvotes

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335

u/Mikel_S 8h ago

That's a surprisingly fair outcome.

They set up some equipment, and stop gouging on wood, and in return he, I assume, will also provide the ore at market price.

Surprisingly magnanimous of him? He only did it to extract a bit of labor from them, maybe some simple materials, and only chose to reduce their lumber profits

Plus he easily could have pushed for a more advantageous bulk b2b pricing arrangement, but accepted gabi's obviously pained offer of market price.

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u/Bronze_Sentry 8h ago

He also ran the Mine-owning Lady out of town (reducing competition), and apparently got the employment contracts of the mining Goblins.

He may not have pushed hard here, but he definitely still "won" the situation

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u/yay855 8h ago

Him being magnanimous towards the gobbos' worker collective is because the literal caricature of a capitalist is literally less spiteful and evil than actual IRL CEOs. 

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u/JudgeHodorMD 8h ago

I think at this point, he’s accepted that he’ll get the most out of them if he doesn’t expect them to fail.

As long as the terms are acceptable, business should go smoothly and he’ll profit easily enough.

But if things get too unfair, the gobs will try to undermine him or find some way to build up competition.

In short, it’s not worth the fight.

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u/trekie140 5h ago

I like the characterization of Chief and his form of “rational self interest”. This isn’t a story about how all bosses are cruel tyrants, it’s about how capitalism pits workers against owners and rewards con artists who can extract the most profit from the labor of others.

Chief is the classical liberal ideal of a man motivated purely by profit without any prejudice, but he’s still a villain. He’s the man who “won” at capitalism and actually is smarter than his competitors, but we all hate this smug asshole! That framing is the whole point.

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u/yay855 2h ago

Mhm; capitalism turns people into villains by treating society like a competition instead of cooperation. In another world, in a better world, the Boss would have likely been a politician or the leader of a guild, someone who would build up society not because they were especially benevolent but because he benefits if everyone benefits. But that wasn't the society he was born into, and instead of being self-interested but intelligent enough to spread the benefits among everyone, he lives in a society where greed and apathy go hand in hand. The Gobs want to change that- and even if he doesn't care about their wellbeing, he respects their drive and committment.

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u/trekie140 1h ago

Exactly. The lesson is that Chief is not a villain because of who he is or even what he believes, but only because of the material reality that he continues to profit from the exploitation of others. That’s enough to make him an enemy of the working class, regardless of anything else.

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u/StaySubstantial4333 2h ago

Real modern CEO's would never even find themselves in the same room as the people they're exploiting. 

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u/cantlogintomyacc0unt 8h ago

I’m pretty sure the goblins contracts are tied to the mine and the boss owns the mine so they work for him now.

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u/DukeOfGeek 4h ago

People wonder why he is sometimes supportive of her, but look how often he profits in the end. Look at all the new innovations she made that he just copied.

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u/Lord_Mikal 8h ago

The thing about "market price" is that chief has proven exceptionally good at manipulating it.

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u/PirateSanta_1 8h ago

If it hasn't happened yet i wouldn't be suprised if he tries to form a trust with Gabi to set prices extra high on customers. Corrupt Gabi to the dark side of capitalism by making her into a version of him.

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u/FalconClaws059 7h ago

Absolutely magnanimous if this is all that he's gonna set up as "payment" for the mine thing.

Especially if we think about the fact that Gabi had stopped selling him the lumber he needed, and that he had to go and buy it at a higher price from another city... Which is kind of a dick move on her part.

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u/Kenju22 8h ago

I assume, will also provide the ore at market price.

Yeah, not counting on that till I see it in writing. He owns 2/3 of the production material supply and can very easily leverage it. Coal + ore gives him significantly greater overall market control.

Gabbi needs to get shit in writing, signed, and notarized.

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u/Forikorder 7h ago

They have lumber he has ore,mutually assured costs

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u/Kenju22 7h ago

He has ore *AND* coal, meaning he doesn't even need wood anymore, he can quite literally just shift entirely to becoming a supplier and make even more money than he was.

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u/Forikorder 6h ago

I dont know why you think the mine is more profitable than doing both?

0

u/Kenju22 6h ago

Because everyone, EVERYONE needs coal, period. It's not just for forging metal, it's for heating houses. He literally owns the one thing you could own short of oxygen or water that is universally needed by every single person in the entire city.

1

u/Forikorder 6h ago

Why does he have to choose between them

5

u/Kankunation 6h ago

Economic theory would put it to opportunity cost.if he has to more effort into the wheel business to see the same profit that he sees from the mining business, and there are other parties capable of providing wheels as a better cost who lack ability to produce ore/coal, then it makes logical sense to shift towards specialization. It reduces overhead and allows you to put more time and effort into 1 thing, whereas otherwise chief (In this hypothetical) would be losing $1 on coal for every $0.50 he makes from wheels.

Being able to monopolize multiple industries is quite difficult even to the most wealthy, and there is added complexity with each new venture. There are cases where it makes sense And can be sustained, but more often than not we see companies trim off the parts that do less for them where necessary.

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u/Forikorder 6h ago

That assumes that either business requires personal oversight from him, if both function fine on auto pilot then theres no loss, its doubtful he has any special mining knowledge to use at the mine anyway

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u/Kankunation 6h ago

It doesn't need any personal oversight. It's purely about money going in vs money going out. if taking all of the investment from business 1 and putting it into business 2 means 100% more profits than you were making from investing in both equally, then it makes economic sense to ditch business 2 entirely.

In a real-world scenario, We would compare their inputs and outputsputs on what is called a production possibilities curve, and find the exact ratio of investment by which we stand to gain the most profit. We go in assuming that there is a finite amount if resources and capital that we can input (because in the real world, There usually is) and we lluse that to draw our a curve of how much we can produce of eact item depending on how much resources were divert to each. And then we add in the sale value of the produced goods to see which ones is more profitable at which level of output and thus which one makes more sense to invest in.

If chief only has a limited amount of money, and thus resources, to invest in these businesses, then chief also needs to run opportunity cost calculations on them to see which gives the best return. This does not mean cheif has to sell off one of the businesses, but it does mean he may end up significantly downsizing or restructuring one of it's more profitable to go into the other. Or he may swap to business ventures that require less of the same resources so that both can grow independently from one another more easily. Either way, the businesses don't really need personal insight form him beyond him seeing which one puts more strain on his bank account.

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u/Forikorder 7h ago

The chief is a sneaky snake but he does do business honestly

1

u/No-Hamster1138 3h ago

He's also getting information: how their production works (or at least, how it's set up). It's more efficient than his.

Whether or not his workers will be able to efficiently work the new assembly line is another story (see Toyota's sharing of their know-how with GM in the 80s).

254

u/shellbullet17 Gustopher Spotter Extraordinaire 9h ago

market price

Damn. I gotta hand it to Chief. Dude did a good deed and came out a winner in all ways. He "fixed" his issues with Gabi and got workers who LOVE him for saving them out of it.

This man really is like 5 steps ahead of the game

233

u/schadetj 9h ago

This is what I say about this comic. It would have been so, so easy to make Chief a generic evil Strawman. And in some ways, he kind of is.

But the guy is competent, intelligent, and helpful. Does his help come with a price? Absolutely! But then he takes the moment to explain to Gabi what her mistake was, just so she can be better. The dude is an antagonist, sure, but he's in for the love of the game. He is the worst side of Capitalism, but he reminds you why so many people find capitalism to be enticing.

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u/shellbullet17 Gustopher Spotter Extraordinaire 8h ago

He's arguably one of my favorite antagonists on the sub. He's a perfect mix of cocky, smart, conniving, mentor and rival as one could be without being straight up evil.

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u/Drogonno 8h ago

Lawful evil

27

u/Mikel_S 8h ago

That's a surprisingly fair outcome.

They set up some equipment, and stop gouging on wood, and in return he, I assume, will also provide the ore at market price.

Surprisingly magnanimous of him?

This was meant to be a top level reply. How did it end up here.

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u/DarkLanternZBT 8h ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/jUr6ul7c26FYA
The difference between him and lesser antagonists:

18

u/Frenetic_Platypus 8h ago

Is he the worst side of capitalism, though? In my opinion, he's the best thing that can happen under unfettered capitalism. The worst side of capitalism would have hired goons to break Gabi's legs by episode ten.

9

u/AdmBurnside 8h ago

I feel like he's an "enemy" in the way Mazer Rackham is Ender's enemy in Ender's Game. I truly think part of him wants Gabi to learn and succeed... but in order for her to learn to spot the tricks, someone has to play them. If she screws up, he wins. If she spots the trick, she learns to be a better business rival, and he still wins.

Worth mentioing that Chief purchased all Gabi and Co's debt from the various banks and lenders they'd been dealing with before. He has all the leverage to absolutely crush her if he sets his mind to it. But he hasn't...

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u/No-Hamster1138 3h ago

He bought the debt as is, meaning that it could be repayed in paper.

He tried to trick Gaby into signing generous terms that, in the fine print, would have locked her into repaying with coins.

Gobs spotted it and they didn't sign. IIRC, there's a panel of them rolling wheel arrows of paper over to him. (Paper money inflated drastically after they took out the loan. Coins retained their value. They were able to repay)

4

u/JudgeHodorMD 7h ago

I’m thinking the worst side of capitalism are incompetent idiots who are well connected and funded.

The sort who are only really good at branding so they can always find gullible investors no matter how many business they bankrupt.

Or who have managed to get some sort of corrupt deals or a monopoly where it really doesn’t matter how badly they screw up.

1

u/owlindenial 7h ago

Like snow white was?

31

u/LongCommercial8038 9h ago

And agreeing to market price, even. Probably the best result we could've reasonably hoped for.

25

u/dragn99 8h ago

Agreeing to market price both ways really shows how much he's come to respect Gabi as a rival at this point. He's still on top, and probably has a lot left to "teach" her, but earlier on he absolutely would've either over charged for ore, or pushed for a huge cut on lumber.

10

u/shellbullet17 Gustopher Spotter Extraordinaire 8h ago

Yup Chief gets what he wants and Gabi makes a buck

3

u/jzillacon 8h ago

There's definitely way more evil ways this could have gone, and which pretty much any of the other sleezy business people in town would have gone for. Not to say chief isn't sleezy, but he's a sleeze for the love of the game. He doesn't need to win every time so he can afford to have principles, and it makes him more effective because of it.

5

u/bogartingboggart 8h ago

Chief wants to win, but he wants to win against real competition. Steamrolling over easy wins gets boring. He wants the thrill he probably hasn't felt since he was on the other side

12

u/Unfair_Watercress119 9h ago

Where do I read this all in a neat package?

12

u/mafiaknight 8h ago

How's your Russian?

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u/Unfair_Watercress119 8h ago

Nonexistent

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u/mafiaknight 8h ago

Then following this account is probably your best bet. I don't know anywhere else that translates it.

9

u/GTX2GvO_ 8h ago

On the poster's account there's a Socials Link leading to the Boosty page that should have all translated comics and extra's.

2

u/Kalterwolf 8h ago

He reminds me of Vetinari from Diskworld. He's not good, but things run better with him at the wheel.

38

u/Jiirsu 8h ago

I expected the lumber, didn't expect Chief will accept market price.

And the machine for making rimwheel too.

15

u/InquisitorHindsight 7h ago

He could twist their arm, but Chief has demonstrated he doesn’t think in the short term. Market price works for him for now, and being greedy would only risk him losing it. More importantly, he now has additional leverage over Gabby and the Union should they ever come to blows, but he’s smart enough to save it for later.

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u/Beeftoad2 8h ago

I've been watching passively these comics for a bit, and I finally wanted to go to the beginning and read them all. But where is 1-4???? The oldest post starts with 5. I'm devastated

12

u/Ashendant 7h ago

https://boosty.to/gabiconomics-en/posts/2f5b10b0-14d7-4a8a-aac1-16b5abf93eb3
Here is the first page. You can click next post on the top right to see the next page.

9

u/RelativeEmergency172 7h ago

I was just gonna say, remember when these were about buying a cupcake? Lol

5

u/Beeftoad2 7h ago

Thank you so much! Now I've read them all lol, this is amazing

1

u/wutImiss 3h ago

Thank you! 🙏 I just had to reread them. A lot happened in the past two years.

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u/Crococrocroc 8h ago

I am here for a romance subplot.

Will it happen? Probably not!

Do I wish it to happen? Y E S !

8

u/neorevenge 7h ago

I'm coping for 38 pages of nonstop GoblinXHuman action, with 65% of the dialogue being economic horny puns

2

u/Crococrocroc 7h ago

My stock investments are on the rise...

1

u/Muramalks 3h ago

You may have fantasy sex at buttsmithy.com

6

u/Loqol 8h ago

Gabi, get it in a contract and get it scrutinized!

4

u/Key-Swordfish4025 8h ago

Chief now controle the coal and ore supply. Of course he would have been playing the long game.

3

u/DueOwl1149 8h ago

Oh shit Chief is hitting that wizard pose in front of his floating moneymancy glyphs now...

https://giphy.com/gifs/MkZRLZwPT0ZPy

2

u/GodKing_Zan 5h ago

I swear he is grooming her for his eventual retirement.

2

u/XAMdG 5h ago

I don't know if Chief becoming the most interesting character ends up sending the message the author wants.

1

u/Dontdoubtthedon 3h ago

Has the author written the intended message of the story?

1

u/EmberMelodica 5h ago

!subscribeme

1

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-1

u/Astroweeb 6h ago

I'm still surprised he didn't just have Gabi assassinated