The Purchase DC of the National Debt

[Achan hiArusa]

I had long ago done an Excel fit of Dollars to Purchase DC as per the table found in Future d20:

y = 7.9781468073465 * log x - 6.3440017626864

(It has an R^2 value of 0.999 but fails with DC 2, 3, and 7).

So our national debt is approximately:

$14,088,626,000,000

Which is a purchase DC of 99 (rounded up). Can any of your characters afford it?

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

I bet good ol' Waldorf (from Dungeon magazine's letters section) could afford it.

 

[Deuce Traveler]

No, but you just made me realize that if we at ENWorld pool our PC resources together we can purchase the United States. But who gets Florida and who gets the Dakotas.

 

[Relique du Madde]

Food for thought...

Each coin in DnD weighs 1/3 oz.
Platiumum Price: About $1800 /ounce
Gold Price: About $1300/ounce.
Silver Price: About $28/ounce
Copper Price: about $0.26/oz

1gp = $430
10 sp = $93
100 cp=$26

So imagine how rich your current pc would be if they were to plane shift to the Real World...

 

[Dalamar]

No, but you just made me realize that if we at ENWorld pool our PC resources together we can purchase the United States. But who gets Florida and who gets the Dakotas.

Last I checked, ENWorld had 100,000 and some members. If we were to buy the United States, each and every member would have to scrounge up some 14 million dollars...

Edit: no, wait, that's PCs' resources, not members' resources. Umm... I blame quick reading?

 

[Alzrius]

I had long ago done an Excel fit of Dollars to Purchase DC as per the table found in Future d20:

y = 7.9781468073465 * log x - 6.3440017626864

(It has an R^2 value of 0.999 but fails with DC 2, 3, and 7).

So our national debt is approximately:

$14,088,626,000,000

Which is a purchase DC of 99 (rounded up). Can any of your characters afford it?

Nope, but now he's got something to shoot for!

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Could a consortium of countries make that purchase DC? Or China?

 

[Azgulor]

Could a consortium of countries make that purchase DC? Or China?

The way China manipulates it's currency? Sure.

 

[Achan hiArusa]

Food for thought...

Each coin in DnD weighs 1/3 oz.
Platiumum Price: About $1800 /ounce
Gold Price: About $1300/ounce.
Silver Price: About $28/ounce
Copper Price: about $0.26/oz

1gp = $430
10 sp = $93
100 cp=$26

So imagine how rich your current pc would be if they were to plane shift to the Real World...

The Roman Solidi was the purest gold coin and was half gold so you have to drive the price down down to half as much or

1 gp = $215

Actually, since it is 50 coins to a pound, it is 0.32 ounces per coin. The Roman Solidi started out as 4.5g of gold in a 5.5g coin, quickly went to 4.5g of gold to 9.08g of coin, and by the time it became the Dinar it contained 4.0g of gold to a 9.08g of coin. And European coins at the time had even less gold content (down to as far as 1/3 gold for a denier or 1/12 for an "electrum piece").

So it was

1 solidus (original) = $340
1 solidus (standard) = $206
1 dinar = $183
1 gold denier = $139
1 "electrum piece" = $35

But then again, real world economics don't come into play in D&D. I still prefer the silver standard myself (I just introduce lead coins at the bottom under copper, electrum pieces between silver and gold, and then drop the prices from gold to sliver).

 

[Lord Zack]

What if a villain bought out the national debt? What would that mean? That's assuming he had enough money. I'm not sure how realistic that is, though. Could a corporation be big enough and have enough money to do that? Or maybe a bunch of corporations together?