For an economics study competition I took place in for my Bachelor’s, I worked on applying Elinor Ostrom’s work on self-management of common property using a tree farm in the DS version of Animal Crossing.
People see “debt” and think capitalism, but the important aspect of capitalism that’s missing from AC is a police force to coerce you into paying debt / taxes, forcing you to work for a living. In AC, planning and development is done by the villagers themselves and they also control the means of production, so Animal Crossing feels to me like a socialist anarchy. You can still have debt, profit and consume – those things aren’t evils. But AC shows communities and individuals can make rational decisions to self-govern when a coercing hierarchy isn’t involved. (I notice people with full control of their own islands rarely chop all their own trees down!)
