How did aliens FUND their huge operations?!

[fems]

Sarcophagi probably also played a big role in pretending they were immortal. Even when SG-1 thought they'd killed one of them by blowing up their ships the Goa'uld always managed to get out in time by using an escape pod or something similar. That would be the same if two or more Goa'uld would get into a war with their fleets, like Heru'ur and Apophis once did.

Also, Bra'tac mentioned that 'sons' often are a bigger threat than any enemy to their 'father' so it wouldn't surprise me if any of those 'sons' have killed their 'father' in the past.

[SF_and_Coffee]

Sarcophagi probably also played a big role in pretending they were immortal. Even when SG-1 thought they'd killed one of them by blowing up their ships the Goa'uld always managed to get out in time by using an escape pod or something similar. That would be the same if two or more Goa'uld would get into a war with their fleets, like Heru'ur and Apophis once did.

Very good point! Just because System Lords weren't necessarily dying left and right doesn't mean there wasn't warfare between them.

Also, Bra'tac mentioned that 'sons' often are a bigger threat than any enemy to their 'father' so it wouldn't surprise me if any of those 'sons' have killed their 'father' in the past.

Killed on occasion, absolutely; and tried on many more, I am certain. Such seems to be the nature of life a society where the way to get ahead is to usurp the place of someone else. For that matter, Earth's mythologies are full of examples of precisely this among the various deities in this or that pantheon. Greek, Roman, Egyptian and Hindu mythologies have their fair share of such conflicts and plots. For example, in Egyptian mythology Set assassinated Osiris.

[garhkal]

Though we know he only imprisoned her in that canopik jar.

[SF_and_Coffee]

Right, but my point was more that in human mythology, deities do manage to kill each other from time to time and therefore it might not seem terribly strange to the Goa'uld's human slaves that their "gods" occasionally did so as well.

Oh, and Osiris was actually "him". The symbiote took a female host upon getting out of the jar because a female host was what was available at the time.

[garhkal]

True.. but i always see Osiris as a female.. Isis as well.

[SF_and_Coffee]

In Egyptian mythology, though, Osiris was the husband of Isis, and thus male. Like I said, I'm talking about the Egyptian gods, not about Goa'uld symbiotes.

Also, if the symbiote posing as Osiris was actually playing the role of the mythological Osiris back in Egyptian times before being sealed into that canopic jar, the symbiote would have taken a male host to Isis' female host, in order to appear as the god and goddess the couple were impersonating.

(Which is probably why I see Osiris as male, but having taken a female host just because that's what was available. For that matter, I see the Tok'ra Selmak as female, despite being hosted by Jacob.)

[garhkal]

True...
Which makes me wonder what other potential 'sex changes' there might have been.

[Anoobian]

When thinking about the goa'uld, the Ori, the Tokra and the wraith, and who knows who else, I keep wondering how on earth (no pun intended) they FUNDED all of their enormously expension operations. Down here there is always talk about the Pentagon, the international committee, etc., budgets, etc. but the aliens seem to never have any limits to their budgets, to the money available for their huge operations and expenses.

One enormous pyramid ship must cost the equivalent of a few billion dollars alone. Even a zat gun or a cloaking device used by the sodans must have been worth millions of dollars in our currency. I realize that naquadah would be a source of income, but I don't think anything could have covered the limitless amount of alien technology and power that we see.

By the way, how costly is it to reproduce normal earth gravity in space ships? Say half a billion dollars per vessel?

Most races shown have eliminated things people would need to have money for. Like the Aschen, their society could very well operate with no need for a currency.

Bartering was the way of the old, but it really is another form of currency maybe?

But, you only need to buy things when someone has what you want. The Goa'uld and other oppressive races do not negotiate for anything. You give me what you have or you die and then I take what you have anyway. Then I bring you back from the dead for you to die again haha

[Idiopathic]

I'd imagine that the Goa'uld probably operate a Palace Economy like a lot of Bronze Age civilisations did.

We don't see a lot of trade between different groups but when we do it's almost invariably on a barter basis so maybe the Goa'uld don't issue currency or maybe the value of any currency that was widely accepted collapsed when Goa'uld control over the Milky Way began to falter. Up until that point the Goa'uld were the dominant power in the Milky Way, so presumably people like the Tok'ra who operated throughout Goa'uld civilisation would use whatever system was in place, either barter, local (System lord or planet specific) currency or, if it existed, Goa'uld-wide currency - basically whatever all the common people who lived under Goa'uld rule were doing. Most of the other Milky Way civilisations were fairly isolated and so really only had their own internal economies to worry about and many, like the Tollan and Nox may have been post-scarcity and so may not have needed money.

[sueKay]

How did they fund their operations? I think that's a moot point given:

A - The Goa'uld are parasites - thieves by nature
B - The Ori are acended
C - The Wraith grow what they need
D - I don't think any of them are capitalists, lol

[Gate Ranger]

The goa'uld didn't really care about money it was "Give it or I kill you and the rest of the planet."

For the Wraith money is no object, only feeding grounds, their response was "Get off my property or I'll eat you."

Not sure about the Ancients and the rest.