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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   1130 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for January 30, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Cross-posted from /r/rational:

Gabital - Fantasy Capitalism 101

Gabital tells the story of Gabi, a goblin wheelwright who loves cupcakes. One day, she gets tired of working for Chief, and decides that she wants to work for herself. But, as she is going to find out, there is a lot more to running a business than she first thought...

I came across this webcomic randomly while pursuing my interest in cute goblin girls. I expected to hate it, since it's obviously written from a Marxist perspective (labor theory of value, bosses as parasites, etc.), but to my surprise, I was hooked.

The art is pretty (not gorgeous like Dresden Codak or Seed, but certainly better than Transdimensional Brain Chip or The Order of the Stick), the protagonist is likable (Gabi is intelligent, hard-working, perseverant, and truly believes in her ideals of helping the laborers rather than becoming another Chief), and the details of how she operates the new enterprise (and the obstacles she faces in the way) are thorough, coherent, and fascinating.

I was impressed when the artist included an anecdote of incentive structures encouraging employees to do unproductive things (paying per cupcake leading the orc guy to try making three times as many at once, ruining the batch) and I fell in love when I saw the Sankey diagrams describing the relationship between revenue, expenses, and profits (thought I could not help but wonder how many of the goblins came in a fluffer).

On the other hand, the workers seem mighty ready to subsidize the non-profitable parts of the business, such as filing tax paperwork; that does not square up with what I know of co-ops.

It could well be that the communist approach to economics ruins the comic later, but for now I highly recommend it.

The shop owner's a little too overtly villainous -- you do get real-world management shooting themselves in the foot repeatedly, yet that's almost all this guy does -- but having the other gobs be tempted by capitalism not because of lingering evil but because it seems like a reasonable approach helps temper it, as does other goblins only being in the coop for the minimum. There's more that could be explored, and it's hard to tell where the gaps are left undone for future comic material, which because the author isn't aware of them (or wouldn't run into them, just as Americans don't have to care about VAT-likes), and which because the author doesn't have a good grip or counter on them.

Still, nice to see someone trying to steelman their own positions, especially given the tendency of Marxists to be pretty shallow about it. I'd rather read well-executed works, even and maybe especially where I disagree.

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