Clerks

[vladimirovalenina]

Clerks being able to produce resources out of thin air doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

A more sensible system would be to remove the consumer good upkeep system from pops while increasing amenity consumption to compensate, and have clerks transform consumer goods into amenities. That way they actually serve a real and logical purpose.

 

[wingren013]

Clerks are supposed to represent every day office workers. They make trade value. I'm not sure how that is producing something out of thin air.

 

[Darrow]

Not understanding the issue either here, just generic office work that translates to trade flow really.

 

[vladimirovalenina]

They make trade value out of nothing. That doesn't make sense. If the clerk job consumed consumer goods, that would make sense, because they would actually have something to sell.

 

[Subcomandante]

Part of the general upkeep for all your buildings and ships is paid in form of energy wages to the population. So the civilian population has their own energy, which is used to buy clerk services.

 

[SirL]

They make trade value out of nothing. That doesn't make sense. If the clerk job consumed consumer goods, that would make sense, because they would actually have something to sell.

A lot of things in Stellaris don't "make any sense". If you look from the perspective of simplifying things you will find that sense. We have a lot of stuff already, we don't need more unnecesary rquirements for jobs. Let's make farmers require water and fertilizer then? Miners need machinery? Split abstract minerals and alloys into 100 different categories, because that'h how it is in real life?

 

[WJLIII3]

They make trade value out of nothing. That doesn't make sense. If the clerk job consumed consumer goods, that would make sense, because they would actually have something to sell.

But clerks DON'T consume consumer goods. Like, in real life, real actual clerical work happens all the time. It doesn't consume noticable quantities of raw materials and it produces substantial value. You're going to have to bring this complaint to the foundational precepts of market economics, I don't know what you want Pdox Devs to do. It simply doesn't require any pig iron to supply an accounting firm.

 

[yerm]

The idea is that there is a massive abstracted civilian economy. Your clerks are using it and paying taxes.

 

[Pootino]

Clerks and merchants represent the part of the thertiary sector that specializes in the commerce of goods and services , that's it. There's no point in them requiring consumer goods since said goods are already reaching the rest of the population with the living conditions, they are simply profiting over it.

 

[Mastikator]

The government does not encompass the entire economy and the government does not employ every single person within its borders.

When you buy consumer goods from your internal market you are not converting energy directly into stuff, you're buying it from the private sector.

 

[Snoipah]

They make trade value out of nothing. That doesn't make sense. If the clerk job consumed consumer goods, that would make sense, because they would actually have something to sell.

Administrators create amenities from nowhere.

Several jobs create things from nowhere.

 

[bobucles]

you're buying it from the private sector.

But where does the private sector get it from? It brings things back to a question of technicians vs. clerks. The whole Stellaris economy lore stipulates that all things of value are backed by energy credits. But if your empire doesn't have technicians then it literally doesn't have any energy. So where do the clerks get energy credits from, and how can they get more energy credits than people whose lives are built around creating functional energy?

There are a lot of empires that can build themselves without a single energy district. It's a valid question to ask how such an empire is supposed to work. Granted a good accountant can make existing industry function more smoothly, but an empire built completely around accounting sounds more like a fallen empire.

 

[Sergei Andropov]

With the current system, if you set your trade policy to give you consumer goods, you have this weird situation where a bunch of clerks stand around all day giving Power Point presentations, and this somehow causes an iPhone to appear. I agree that it makes more sense for iPhones to come from factories, and for clerks to effectively act as retail workers, helping pops receive the consumer goods they otherwise wouldn't have access to.

 

[wingren013]

They make trade value out of nothing. That doesn't make sense. If the clerk job consumed consumer goods, that would make sense, because they would actually have something to sell.

They make it out of labor.

 

[Tobasco da Gama]

They make it out of labor.

This guy knows how to Marx.

 

[safe-keeper]

But where does the private sector get it from? It brings things back to a question of technicians vs. clerks. The whole Stellaris economy lore stipulates that all things of value are backed by energy credits. But if your empire doesn't have technicians then it literally doesn't have any energy. So where do the clerks get energy credits from, and how can they get more energy credits than people whose lives are built around creating functional energy?

There are a lot of empires that can build themselves without a single energy district. It's a valid question to ask how such an empire is supposed to work. Granted a good accountant can make existing industry function more smoothly, but an empire built completely around accounting sounds more like a fallen empire.

I view the districts you build as superstructures that are far, far, far more massive than the ones already on the planet. Think superstructures like the Three Gorges Dam. the game's tooltip even describes them this way -- long rows of massive structures.

 

[sresk]

But where does the private sector get it from? It brings things back to a question of technicians vs. clerks. The whole Stellaris economy lore stipulates that all things of value are backed by energy credits. But if your empire doesn't have technicians then it literally doesn't have any energy. So where do the clerks get energy credits from, and how can they get more energy credits than people whose lives are built around creating functional energy?

There are a lot of empires that can build themselves without a single energy district. It's a valid question to ask how such an empire is supposed to work. Granted a good accountant can make existing industry function more smoothly, but an empire built completely around accounting sounds more like a fallen empire.

Assume that there is a public sector building power plants and solar satellites. Then assume that energy as a form of currency is is no longer directly backing said currency just like our currency is no longer backed by gold. Then squint real hard and remember this is a game. You'll see how it makes sense.

 

[Talanic]

You don't specifically make sewer systems. Are you assuming your pops are all drowning in their own filth? Similarly, there is civilian infrastructure that you did not specifically build. Clerks help distribute resources that are already there - resources that were never in government appendages.

I imagine this is also why pops are abstract and don't match specific population thresholds. Different governments will allow more or less private sector work.