In the Caliphate of Azithan, known as the necromancer kingdom ..

In the Caliphate of Azithan, known as the necromancer kingdom ..

I'm betting you thought I forgot about this. An economics thought experiment with undead? No way, this remains my jam.

Oh, and what's that? I can make fun of American politics in an oblique way, too? Hot.

Some common positions within the church and weekly incomes include:

Weekly Believer: 50 cups of flour, called a prayer. I'm gonna use Prayer throughout, just remember it is 50 cups of flour and you need ~4 cups/day to live. This weekly believer has the minimum basic income. Call it $12,000 a year, or ~ 250/week.

The following are paid in coinage that is backed by the flour and other commodities in the Temple Storehouse:
Lifeless: 0 prayers
Believer: 1 prayer (4 hours prayer/week)
Devout Believer: 2 prayers (12 hours prayer / week)
Soldier: 4 prayers (serious work)
Non-com (sergeant / corporal): 5 prayers
Officer: 10 prayers -- most are independently wealthy

If the MBI is ~12,000/year, then the common soldiers are paid ~50,000, the non-coms in the 60s, and the officers over 100k. And remember, the common soldiers aren't as numerous as one would suspect, as the Lifeless do a lot of the work.

Occasionally, a priest will have the great idea to cut the funding for the common troops. It'll save so much money! If you've got 100,000 troops, just cut them all down to 3 a week and save 100,000 prayers a week. Its brilliant!

Those priests are eaten by the undead, as the people ultimately control the Lifeless.

Speaking of priests, what are they paid. The following are all-in salaries.
Priest, common: 5 prayers
Priest, house of commons: 10 prayers
Priest acting as Governor of a Principality: 20 prayers
Priest, Prime Minister: 25 prayers
Wizard, House of Lords: 50 prayers

Priests are paid more than soldiers, because they raise and control the Lifeless. Mostly. The wizards are paid so much because, like Thomas Bayes, they are expected to come up with remarkably good new technology.

Because the house of Commons operates with a parliamentary system and the priests vote, there are multiple political parties. These sometimes get color coded for your convenience:

Blue: Use the lifeless to power our economy, use our economic force to control our neighbors. Treadmills and wheat fields!
Red: Use the lifeless to control our neighbors. Build Roads, pillage our neighbors! Turn them into us.
Orange: Kill the priests in charge! And all our neighbors, woo hoo! Lifeless can build a wall, and we'll start raising animals as Lifeless, too!
Black: Everyone should have equal control over the lifeless! State control of the lifeless is tyranny.
Green: Maybe we shouldn't rely so heavily on dead bodies you guys. They are stinky.

Most political contests are between Red and Blue, with the other smaller parties throwing in their weight to give one a majority government.

Some common goods in most Temple Storehouses:
Daily Flour: 0.08 of a Prayer
Weekly Flour: 0.50 of a Prayer (discount for buying it all at once)
Weekly rent: 0.20 of a prayer and up. The Church has a variety of apartments and houses, ranging from just enough room for a bed up to multi-thousand square foot homes.

Commodities provided for free: water, toilets, prayer robes.

The Church is, of course, not the only market. Not only do the Guilds have their own markets, but can also rent space within the Temple Storehouse and sell their goods at whatever price point they want.

They don't even have a monopoly on the monetary system: While within the temple walls, all purchases must be done in prayers, exchange and barter happen in whatever currencies people choose outside those walls.

The Bakers Guild is particularly happy to get their hands on more Prayers, as the church owns most of the flour through the Lifeless labor.