I’m Skald could do this better than I can, but I am not he. (I’m much cuter to start =^.^= )
Imagine, a world where super-powers are common. You’re one of the lucky ones. You’re also bright enough to realize that being a super-hero or super-villain might be a fine hobby but is no reasonable way of supporting a family. That in mind, how would the world be different?
No psychics or telepaths. No precogs either. Sorry.
Unfortunately, most people have minor powers. The big boys and girls work for the government.
I think you’d need to be more specific about the nature of the superpowers. Some things would be more conducive to money-making than others.
With that said, I’d probably just end up doing the same thing I currently plan on doing, which is going into academia. Sort of like how I feel about music right now, I’d know that I have natural talent in the area (of superpowers) but probably not the discipline to hone it to perfection.
I pick teleportation, and go into the space travel business. Even if I can only transport a smallish mass to orbit I’m sure I could undercut NASA’s dollars-per-pound price substantially and live well.
I’ve seen what happens when superheros do their thing. I would be a carpenter or some other kind of construction worker, specializing in repairing things destroyed by super powers. My super power really wouldnt matter, it could be all kinds of things: strength, telekinesis, matter replication, heat vision, super speed, etc. I would make money by the truckload.
I’m not sure if we’re supposed to pick our own powers or assume some particular portfolio, but in any event, I’d almost certainly be studying the nature of how powers work. Probably not all that lucrative, but it’s basically the same thing I’m doing now, and I’m satisfied with it. But of course it’d be much more exciting to be on the forefront of such a new and significant field.
It’s difficult to imagine what you could make money at assuming you aren’t the only one with powers. Metahuman resources are subject to arbitrage just like anything else, meaning that if you choose a power that any substantial number of others have your ability to trade on it will be minimal unless you’re above-average at it.
This also presupposes a society that has developed around some percentage of people (how many?) having each specific power (which? what ratios?) has done everything else accordingly.
Therefore, the only way to make money with superpowers by going into such a society is by knowing beforehand which superpowers exist, the ratios of people who have each power, and what laws exist that limit the use of various powers. (You can’t gloss over the last one: the ability to fly means some people are under the jurisdiction of the FAA, X-ray vision means some people have to wear lead glasses lest they break privacy laws, and so on.)
I’ll admit this is based on a series of stories/comics I’m working on. I won’t bore you with details, but it’s a mix of Marvel and DC, the mutants are highly prejudiced against, yadda yadda. Despite not technically being allowed to own, well anything, they still manage to make things work. Some are employed by the government, some hide their powers, some do grey- and black-market work.
One of my favorites is a guy who, similar to Sunspace’s idea, can just make clothing using cloth as raw materials.
Derleth, you don’t think, say, a super-strong guy might be able to make better work in construction or a speedster as a delivery guy? I figure it’d be kind of how workplaces adapt for the handicapped, except in the other direction, if you get my meaning.
The traditional answer here is to form a power clearinghouse, generally called some variant on SuperTemps. Not so much to keep track of people, as a way to supply insurance to the powered, and to match demand with talent. Even if there’s a guy whose only power is to turn noodle thin, he might be handy when there’s a little girl down a well.
I’d keep doing what I’m doing, and helping people when I can.
Think about it this way: My computer can perform over a billion arithmetic operations a second, store many hundreds of billions of characters in fast long-term storage, and is so reliable that the majority of its components will never need to be repaired or replaced during (and even after) its service lifetime. How much is it worth? Not really a whole hell of a lot, given that it’s just a commodity laptop that’s a few years old now. Computers that can do a lot more are widely available, driving machines like mine out of the mainstream commodity laptop market.
Similarly, if your main talent is being able to dead-lift a thousand (or whatever) pounds it’s only going to be worth something if you’re one of the few people on Earth who can do it. Otherwise, the super-strong people will have driven the normal people out of every position where having extra strength could be a selling point.
One final note: In Europe 600 years ago, literacy was a superpower. It pretty much guaranteed you wouldn’t be covered in shit every living day. It’s even more powerful now, given how much more has been written in the past 500 years (pretty much everything in a European language), but how much can someone expect to get on the job market just for being literate?
And, using it… I become a model, or an actor. (Or model/actor!)
I can look however I need to look for the role or the shoot. I can fit into whatever clothing they want me in, in the most flattering way possible. Or the least flattering way, if that’s what they want.
Or if that’s too potent a power…I could enjoy being an omniglot, capable of understanding every language. I’d become a translator, naturally.
