The Pokémon world in the games is a strange utopia filled with powerful creatures and terrifyingly efficient villains. The fact that a small ten-year-old would be capable of owning a creature powerful enough to obliterate cities is enough to make anyone question the stability of the whole system.
But as you dig into the world’s economy you realize it's a miracle the entire thing hasn't come crashing down. Between the overpriced bicycles, free healthcare for Pokémon, and the obvious housing crisis it makes you wonder just how this economy even works.
10 Bikes Are Expensive
When the player first walked into the bike shop in Cerulean City in Pokémon Blue & Red they were likely excited to finally have a faster means of traveling. Many fans can recall the unexpected shock that came when realizing that bikes cost one million PokéDollars.
Fortunately there was a kind old man willing to hand over a voucher worth that one million to a child patient enough to listen about his Rapidash, but why on earth are bikes so expensive? Granted everyone’s using them, but even cars don’t cost that much and they’re much more complicated pieces of machinery.
9 One Currency
Admittedly much of Europe functions on a single currency, but this is because they are united by the European Union. As far as anyone can tell the various regions of the Pokémon world appear to be independent of each other, functioning more as Feudal States.
It’s surprising then that each region would agree to utilize the same currency. Given each region has their own imports and exports, different industries and businesses, it would only make sense they would have their own unique currency for their own unique economy, but that just isn’t the case.
8 Pokémon Labor
In a world full of Pokémon that can do incredible things how on earth are humans able to remain employed? With Gurdurrs to carry steel beams, Machamps that can bench press buildings, and Metagross that are smarter than a supercomputer why would you hire humans for anything?
Sure you need someone to manage them all which requires strong trainers to oversee the work, but why hire a crane operator when Gurdurr can do it faster? Why bother hiring servers when Chanseys would be happy to do it and not need pay? It seems like Pokémon would very quickly replace humans in most industries, yet everyone seems magically employed still.
7 No One Sells Pokémon
In a world that has such a high demand for strong Pokémon to fight in tournaments, defend from attacks by wild Pokémon, or to fend off terrorists like Team Rocket, why isn’t there an industry to sell Pokémon?
In real-life people sell everything from sugar gliders to puppies, yet there isn’t a single equivalent in the Pokémon World? There’s not one person that would rather buy a Gyrados instead of spending months training it from a lowly Magikarp? How about an auction market for exclusive shinies? Seems like a billion-dollar idea no one’s tapping into.
6 Free Healthcare
Trainers have access to free medical services whenever their Pokémon get injured. It doesn’t matter what Pokémon it is or what the injury is there are machines and personnel capable of healing it for free.
But if the trainer isn’t paying for it who is? It can’t be the government because no one pays any taxes. Perhaps its mega corporations like Silph Co. who want you to buy their Pokeballs to capture injured Pokémon, then provide the ability to heal them and the Pokémon you used to catch it for free. Given how expensive Ultraballs are this seems like a solid business strategy actually.
5 Meowth Makes It Rain
Inflation can be a nightmare for economies, especially if it runs rampant without of means of slowing it down. This is why it’s so concerning that any trainer with an adequately trained Meowth would be capable of using Payday to earn a tidy sum of money in any battle.
Where does this money come from? If it’s produced by Meowth then inflation must be absurd as each trainer can print their own money. If it’s magically siphoned from somewhere then where does it come from?
4 Lack Of Agriculture
There may not be a lot of people, but there are a lot of Pokémon in this world. In a small area trainers can literally trip over Pidgeys, Rattattas, and Zubats. Every trainer has at least one Pokemon in their possession, many have six, and some can have hundreds stored in key locations.
How are they all getting fed? There are very few farms and none of them large enough to keep all those bellies full, especially with Pokémon like Snorlax running around. Granted the Pokémon may be feeding off other Pokémon, but there are few breeders to keep populations up so doe trained Pokemon just live off wild Pidgeys and Magikarps?
3 How Is There Poverty?
Pokémon have some incredible abilities. There are Pokémon that can produce food, water, heat, electricity, and even heal their owners, basically any necessity for life you can think of. Shoot it’s been established that Meowth can generate free coins for its owner so how is anyone poor in this world?
With the right setup you wouldn’t need to spend a penny on necessities yet there are poor people found in these games and in the anime. Even if all you had was a Pidgey you could use that to hunt other Pokémon to catch and sell to other trainers or even send it to work a PokeJob to make you money. How can you possibly be broke?
2 Housing Crisis
An exploration of many cities in the games reveals there aren't a lot of houses to be found, even your own mother sleeps in the kitchen because there isn’t room for her to have a bedroom. This would suggest that a lot of people share housing or just go without.
Admittedly with so many trainers camped out on the sides of routes and in caves they probably don’t need homes, but you’d think with all that money in their pockets and cheap Pokémon labor more houses could be built.
1 Kids Have A Ton Of Money
The last absurdity found in these games is that so many kids have so much money. There are ten-year-olds walking around with thousands of dollars in their pockets and no one seems to question this. Either the currency isn’t as valuable as it would appear or there is a lot of cash in this economy.
An even more incredible question is how much are the wealthy class making if your average fifth grader is earning a couple hundred per Pokémon fight? CEOs of companies like Silph Co. or the Devon Corporation must have ridiculous annual earnings if ten-year-olds are buying hundreds of Pokeballs at $200 a piece or Full Restores at $3 thousand a piece.