[girvo]

> For Starcraft fans out there: It's like being broke because of focusing on building SCVs

While I personally play Protoss, I think this is an awesome way of thinking about it. "Keep your money low" is a mantra that you must remember when playing SC2, and I've always been curious how that translates to actual economics.

If I recall correctly, there was an actual paper written applying Starcraft economics to "real world" econ. Wonder if I can find it..

[marvin]

I'm not sure if it is a 100% perfect analogy to real-world economics, but the best analogy is that all money you use in Starcraft is "working capital". Money in the bank only does you any good insofar as it allows you to handle unexpected emergencies, all other cash should be deployed towards your goals. Which in Starcraft would be to defeat your opponent with generating more cash as a subordinate objective, and in business would be to either make as much money as possible throughout the history of your company, or fulfill whichever goals your company has. Amazon does this by keeping low margins to discourage competition and reinvesting as much as possible.

The biggest difference between Starcraft economics and real-world economics is that Starcraft has no regular expenses or debt, so there is no way to go bankrupt. This removes a large risk element in reinvesting your money.

[croddin]

Starcraft uses supply depots to represent the recurring costs of supporting your army. Using the normal resources would over complicate the game. In a way you could be "in debt" if you ever don't have enough supply.

[jacques_chester]

I believe the business term is worrying about a "lazy balance sheet". You want every dollar working its bum off, not lazing around in a bank.

This is usually an argument for taking on debt to finance new projects.

That said, the complicated way capital gains and income tax interact in the USA mean that lots of investors prefer share prices to rise to any dividend; so when there's nothing to spend cash on, it just piles up.

Compare Australia, where franking credits mean that major companies regularly pay dividends. It's a different kind of complication, but I think on balance it's the better outcome.