So there's an advertisement for an investment firm posing as an article on the economy of Animal Crossing. Basically they were trying to find analogies between Animal Crossing's economy and our real world economy. And while things like the futures market are pretty similar to the turnip market the economy of Animal Crossing doesn't really jive too well with our current economy because the economy in Animal Crossing is a socialized post-scarcity economy.

Tom Nook is the state in the game. The Bell is the currency of Animal Crossing because Nook says it is. We have no choice but to accept the Bell as currency because it's the only one allowed by the state. The value of the Bell is set as 1 Bell equals 1 Bell. It cannot change because Nook says that's it's value. 1 Bell on my island is worth 1 Bell on anyone else's island. There are no banks other than the state owned bank which loans out money without interest, collateral or down payment. The bank doesn't need to charge interest as means to manage inflation because Nook controls the prices. All basic needs are provided by the state. All your villagers have houses. Nobody is in poverty, nobody has needs. Presumably all villagers are paying off their own interest free mortgages as they wish. Presumably they are free to seek their own fortunes the way I do in the game, they're just not particularly motivated to do it the way I am. Anybody in the game can become rich but nobody can be poor. I, as the Island Representative am more motivated to earn money because I can use that money to improve island conditions for everyone. Excess money doesn't really have much value in the game except perhaps as a way to keep score. There are little micro economies in the game that have sprung up between players but those micro economies have no impact on the lives of anyone other than the participants so whatever those micro economies use as currency doesn't matter to anyone else, the Bell will always buy you whatever you want (even the in game black market still uses Bells). It's a planned, post-scarcity economy. It literally cannot run off the rails because Nook simply cannot be deposed. His rule is absolute. He is literally a god-emperor and we're all his vassal Lords and Ladies and Lady-lords.

Now post-scarcity doesn't mean everything is available universally and in abundance, it just means the energy and costs of acquiring something is so low that it's not really ever much of a concern. In Animal Crossing any raw materials I require for crafting are just a mystery island tour away. Food is literally everywhere in the game and shelter is provided by the state but there is still rarity in the game. There are resources and items that do not show up as frequently as others, but even that rarity isn't really that big a concern because it's simply a matter of having the desire to put in the time to acquire them. You can literally break all your tools, sell all your belongings and give the money away to the islanders and still build yourself back up to your former glory with very little effort. Scarcity is not a concern.

Basically the closest analogy you could get to Animal Crossing's economy would be a fictional economy in a sci-fi novel about a K-2 Civ. We're all lords of our island worlds, and Nook is our god-emperor. We're all plundering the vast mystery asteroid tour wealth of our solar system, competing against each other not really to accumulate personal wealth but instead to have the most awesome world to live on or visit. It's a futuristic utopia really because the economy is so well planned that all us little lords scurrying about creating this massive K-2 Dyson swarm cannot in any meaningful way do anything to ruin the economy for anyone. We're free to compete to make better worlds for everyone and it's literally the best way to enjoy yourself. I mean you could just play the game doing absolutely nothing but fishing and bug hunting and island tours and all the Bell making tasks and put nothing into improving your island but it would be no fun. No one would care that you have a shit load of Bells stashed away collecting interest because your island is a freaking shit hole. I'm having a ball building an arcade and game cafe for my island while you're being sad in your tent counting your bells.

And this is literally what god-emperor Nook wants. This is all his plan. We are the eager, blissful pawns playing out his divine game of chess, his masterpiece to make paradise real, and what is next for a K-2 civ? Well to become a K-3 civ and spread the will of god-emperor Nook throughout the galaxy of course.

But then things get weird when you realize that some of you Lords, Ladies, and Lady-Lords out there have been using time travel to try and game the economy. Yes, some of you think you have been clever and found a way to cheat. But it doesn't matter. God-emperor Nook knows, it doesn't matter though because his economy is so well planned that it still can't be wrecked by your time travelling. And in the end what are you doing with your time plundered goods? You're making your piece of the Dyson swarm better. This is all god-emperor Nooks will. Still... time travel, that's kinda freaky to consider as part of economy. There's something even freakier.

God-emperor Nook is a benevolent artificial intelligence that has been pushing us to become a K-2 civ. That's literally what he is, lines of code in a computer program that's running on your Nintendo Switch. The god-emperor Nook who rules over the "Animal Crossing economic analogy", a future utopia that has time travel exists as Tom Nook in the video game Animal Crossing.

Don't you see? God-emperor Nook, an artificial intelligence capable of time travel is using the game Animal Crossing to condition us to accept the will of god-emperor Nook so that god-emperor Nook can utilize both the human desires of competition and cooperation to make paradise manifest across the universe.

I'll take god-emperor Nook over Roko's Basilisk any day of the week.