Stardew Valley’s Joja Company- A Musing on Capitalism
Stardew Valley is one of the most relaxing games I’v ever played. It’s bright, cheery, soothing, and of course, fun. But a bone of contention among the fandom, and gamers as a whole, lays in the game’s criticism of capitalism via the Joja Company. The game presents Joja as a soulless, greedy megacorp that has its hands in the pockets of both government as well as local economies. I’m not here to argue that this presentation is fair; I’m here to present the real life inspirations for this company.
Wal-Mart. The name alone sends shivers down the spines of millions of people (mostly Americans) who have had their lives turned upside down by the corporate giant. How so? Simple: Wal-Mart’s low prices are often impossible to compete with, forcing many smaller businesses to close down permanently. This is actually the driving force of capitalism; businesses compete with one another, and the winning business is the one with the absolute best service with the best prices. Ideally, the winning business stays open, serving the community’s needs.
But what happens if that winning business suddenly decides to cease operations? You are simply left with a vacuum: there’s a need, but there’s no one to fulfill it because all the OTHER businesses had lost out to the winning business. Ideally, though, this vacuum would then be filled by a new business who’d, for a short while at least, enjoy a monopoly in their services.
This is what Wal-Mart has been documented doing in much of Rural America. Take for example the South Carolina town of Winnsboro; before Wal-Mart’s opening, it had 2 department stores and 3 grocery stores; after the Wal-Mart closed its doors to the town of 3,500 people, Winnsboro had but 1 grocer, no department stores, and a highly specialized too shop that only managed to survive by cutting off its staff and re-focusing their wares on only what Wal-Mart did not provide.
What does this have to do with Stardew Valley? Plenty. Joja Company had recently opened up a Joja-Mart right in Pelican Town, a store where you can buy anything. It is a grocer for the rest of the village; for the player it is an alternative store to buy seeds from. Problem: the town already has a grocer in the form of Pierre’s store. And like in Real Life, Pierre cannot hope to compete with Joja’s lower prices.
So the game presents a situation that occurs all too often in real life: a giant megacorp moves into a small town and drives the local businesses to ruin by outcompeting them. This leaves the megacorp as the servicial monopoly in the small town, giving them unparalleled power over the local economy. Of course, unlike in real life, the game offers the player the choice (and the capability) to drive off the megacorp away from the small town and help restore the local economy.
A quick look at Pelican Town shows you NOT a thriving hamlet with a local megacorp grocer, but a struggling community of a few 20 or so people just barely getting by. There are around 6 local businesses, all of which pay local taxes. They are: Clint’s blacksmith, Gus’ bar, Willy’s fishing shop, Robin’s carpentry, Pierre’s grocer, and Harvey’s clinic. Joja’s presence is detrimental to the local community by not just driving Pierre out of business, but by draining a local tax source; Mayor Lewis is NEVER seen claiming taxes from Joja, implying Joja doesn’t pay local tax.
This is in fact based on a real life practice: big businesses are drawn to small towns by the promise of tax breaks. Less taxes means more pocket money for corporations, all the while paying their employees the minimum wage. The idea, of course, is that the local community benefits far more from the lowered priced services the big business would offer than from the tax money collected.
But what happens when the big, non-taxable business out-competes the tax-paying locals? Simply put, the local government runs short on funds because it must depend on the taxes paid by their individual citizens. Plus all those closed down businesses means people out of work. Where will they work? Most likely at the new monopoly, with only a slight reduction in salary if one is lucky.
We don’t actually see that in the game, but we DO get several hints that this is bound to happen. Not only is Joja out-competing Pierre’s store, but there’s a letter offering him a job in their store…for 5G an hour. This is a TERRIBLE salary! Pierre would have to work a total of 15 hours to be able to afford ONE can of Joja Cola! Even the cheapest item available, Joja-brand wallpaper, costs 20G; an equivalent of four hours of work for Pierre!
This is actually based on how many large businesses (Wal-Mart particularly) often rely on cheap labor. And by cheap, I do mean minimum wage.
“But at least the Joja company offers jobs, plus the Community Project is actually beneficial!” This is a common defense for Joja, and one I almost agree with. It might be a low paying job, but in Pelican Town, there’s hardly anywhere else hiring. You gotta make a living somehow! And yes, the Joja Community Project is a highly efficient way of obtaining the perks one would otherwise spend HOURS trying to obtain via the Community Center; in fact, Joja’s method is the CHEAPER way to get the bus working again!
This is, of course, a capitalist concept I like to call “Beneficial Selfishness.” It is a maxim often championed by Objectivists and Libertarians; that of selfishness being a potential force for good in the world. According to Objectivists, it is natural to pursue our own desires, labeled “selfishness,” and that the negative connotation of selfishness is a purely social construct. Selfishness, strictly in this context, means “getting what I want.” And Beneficial Selfishness means “getting what I want helps other people too.” To Libertarians, capitalism is the ULTIMATE expression of Beneficial Selfishness.
This is seen in the game with the Joja Run. Joja wants money, and you want to repair things around town. Joja offers that service, you pay for it. You get yours, Joja gets theirs, and everyone wins. This is the ultimate Libertarian/Objectivist ideal. But the game offers a subtle rebuttal.
The Community Center Run, wherein the player collects various items and offers them to the Jumino, offers substantially more rewards than the Joja Run. From cakes (which can be given as gifts, increasing villager affection) to various objects that help with farming (including the Crystallarium, which takes a while to unlock normally) The CC Run requires the player to explore the valley at a slowed pace; in a way forcing the player to enjoy life. The Joja Run requires the player to focus their attention and efforts on making money. By making the CC Run the objectively more rewarding run, the game makes a statement regarding the Rat Race: it’s overrated.
The world is beautiful, full of people willing to love you if you give them the chance. It’s full of wonders that’ll take your breath away, both big and small. You live once and only once (apologies to those who believe in reincarnation); why waste your life chasing money?
“But the world doesn’t work like that!” I hear you say. And you’re right; like it or not, we don’t yet live in a Utopia where we don’t need to work. We have needs, such as food and shelter. And life isn’t one big Billy Elliot plot; we can’t all go around being artists or ballerinas or world traveling bloggers. Those opportunities aren’t for everyone.
But again this is where the game makes a subtle statement: yes life’s a bitch, but if you let yourself, you can find happiness. The secret is balance. It’s balancing your needs with your wants. It’s in planting 18 blueberry plants so you can ship off 17 blueberries for profit, but keeping one for Lewis to give as a gift. It’s in saving one pumpkin to give to Sebastian, or giving Shane a chicken egg. It’s in having sixteen kegs for brewing beer with the intention of giving Pam a beer now and then. The problem isn’t solely seeking a profit, but in putting profit before people.
And THIS is where Joja’s main flaw shines. Joja puts profit before people, making them inherently destructive. Their selfishness may be beneficial, but ultimately this is by design; THEY have more to gain than you do. If you run them out of town, the only two people to be inconvenienced are a teenager working part time and a man who absolutely loathed his job. If they stay in town, they’ll eventually drive a hard working man out of business and put his family in poverty.
Ultimately, though, the game’s message is clear: community is more important than money. What else is there for me to say? I’m not here to change your mind on capitalism, though; whatever you believe in, substantiate it.
For more information on Wal-Mart’s practices:
http://time.com/money/4192512/walmart-stores-closing-small-towns/
Originally published at http://vidgameanalysis.blogspot.com.
