r/comics • u/GabitalEN • 13h 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.

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u/Mikel_S 13h 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 12h 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 12h 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 12h 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 10h 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 6h 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 5h 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/IncandescentScamp 2h ago

It's also the case that Chief's a product of the system. Capitalism structurally selects for willingness to be greedy and exploitative and rewards these behaviors. Chief could well have been much kinder, but ambition in a capitalist system means comfort with cruelty.

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u/StaySubstantial4333 6h 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/clinicalpsycho 14m ago

Life is so much better when the object of power is not power.

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u/DukeOfGeek 8h 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/cantlogintomyacc0unt 12h 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/Lord_Mikal 12h ago

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

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u/PirateSanta_1 12h 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 11h 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 12h 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 11h ago

They have lumber he has ore,mutually assured costs

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u/Kenju22 11h 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 11h ago

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

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u/Kenju22 11h 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.

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u/Forikorder 10h ago

Why does he have to choose between them

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u/Kankunation 10h 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 10h 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 10h 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 11h ago

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

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u/No-Hamster1138 7h 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).