Hitchhikers
Register
Advertisement

Frogstar World B, commonly referred to as "The Frogstar", is the second planet in the Frogstar System and is widely held to be the most totally evil place in the Galaxy and sometimes the Universe, a reputation gained most notably by the presence thereof of the notorious Total Perspective Vortex, a machine that depicts the true magnitude of the universe.

The planet is, but for the strange bird-creatures that inhabit its skies, abandoned. Its surface is littered with old ruined cities, and an unusual amount of shoes. An abandoned spaceport on its surface was once found to have had a fully functioning (mind-witheringly delayed) spaceship lying within, perpetually waiting for the restocking of lemon-soaked paper napkins. With all the passengers in stasis, the robotic flight attendants won't let them leave.

Later it is revealed, that Milliways, the restaurant at the End of the Universe, is built on top of the Ruins of long gone civilizations, on Frogstar World B.

Economic History[]

The economic conditions of Frogstar B could be said to be remarkably similar to that of the planet Brontitall, but this only goes to show just how common its tragic fate is in the Galaxy.

Frogstar World B was once a happy, prosperous planet, which was plunged into poverty and despair by a tragic economic phenomenon known as the Shoe Event Horizon, the details of which are as follows:

Even though this planet was, indeed, happy and prosperous, it could be said to have had just a little too many shoe shops. Its poor, fashion-crazed and economically ignorant citizens bought these shoes, gradually coming to buy more, and more, and more, until the shoe companies saw and seized their opportunity, and began to build more shoe shops.

The increase of these shoe shops encouraged people to buy more shoes, which made the shoe companies richer, which manufactured more shoes, and at a lower quality, which made people buy more shoes, etc..

Eventually, it became economically untenable to sell anything other than shoes. Frogstar B spiralled into a state of inexorable economic collapse. Most of the planet died out, and the more genetically unstable of the population evolved into bird-creatures.

This phenomenon is claimed by the Dalmon-Saxlil Shoe Corporation to have been caused by a device they call a "Shoe Shop Intensifier Ray", but this is a lie. All that they needed to do was wait a bit.

Possible Inspiration[]

The Shoe Event Horizon may well have been inspired by a 1943 Economic Journal article by Paul Rosenstein-Rodan. 1

Advertisement