Rudell Units: What use are they in the rpg?

Introduction

The best place to find the definition of the "Rudell Unit" is the sidebar on page 7 of the Earth/Cybertech Sourcebook ( E/CS), which can be briefly summarized as:

One Rudell unit equals one million educated workers "on the assembly line".
 

Analysis

Looking at all of GDW's ( now FFE's) products the answers to the following questions strongly stick out:

Were Rudell Units ever an accurate measure?

Yes, because in the 2100s all of the assembly lines used solely human labor.

Reasoning: Rudell made his theory in the 2100s.  As it was accepted as a standard by fellow economists, then it must have accurately measured the world of approximately 150 years ago ( from a year 2300AD perspective).  It counts the number of people directly working on  the assembly line -- in real-world economic terms "Direct Labor" -- as a way of measuring their ( broadly-defined) industrial output.  For the number of workers to be directly proportional to the output of the assembly line, then all assembly lines around the world in the 2100s had to be at the same mechanical efficiency.  In other words, everyone was using 1900-1960s style assembly lines using human labor for every step/stage along it.

Are Rudell Units accurate in the year 2300AD?

No, because some assembly lines are highly roboticized.

Reasoning: In the year 2300AD, manufacturing has drastically changed, especially in the starfaring nations, due to highly-automated/robotic assembly lines, which require far less people to run.  Per the Nyotekundu Sourcebook on page 86, the Robotics skill can be taken as a substitute for the Computer skill; Computer skill is a main skill of the "Core World" career ( Adventurer's Guide page 16), so Robotics is also.

So comparing just the number of Rudell Units ( a person count) of robiticized America ( or France, or any of the other "Core World" high-tech nations) with those of second-tier nations, that still are mainly 1950s-1960s equivalent hand-assembly lines ( like the CAR's and Manchuria's Rudell numbers indicate), will fail to give the entire picture.

Otherwise you end up with a million educated workers ( one Rudell Unit) doing hand-assembly on a Manchurian assembly line erroneously being considered the equivalent of a million educated first-tier workers ( one Rudell Unit) each running/overseeing 20-50 robots on robotic assembly lines.  It ignores the fact that the first-tier workers' output is possibly twenty to fifty times that of the Manchurians.
 

Conclusion

Measuring industrial productivity in Rudell Units is worthless in the year 2300AD, because it only counts the number of people working on the assembly line, and ignores the amount of automation ( which varies between nations) which is aiding/assisting them.

Rudell Units are an outdated measure of economic output ( which the E/CS points out on page 7).  While it may have been a very accurate measure in the 2100s, when industrial lines were manned by people, it fails in the era of robots.
 

Footnote

Not really.

With the exception of the Earth/Cybertech Sourcebook, none of GDW's ( now FFE's) products had GDP ( Gross Domestic Production) or GNP ( Gross Nation Product) information.  Yet gamemasters and players could find plenty of adventure ideas, and interesting places to visit.  The Aurore Sourcebook is still considered, in many different sci-fi game circles, as one of the best "all about a planet" sourcebooks ever made.

We just do not have enough raw data in GDW's ( now FFE's) products  with which to generate any meaningful GDP, GNP or Rudell Unit numbers for any of the colonies or Tirane.

Players and gamemasters really only need the far more useful, gaming-wise, general "numberless" economic descriptions, which GDW provided and gamemasters are free to expand upon, such as:

1. Nation/colony A is known for being industrialized, especially when compared to any neighboring colonies sharing its planet, or in near-by systems.
2. There is mineral wealth located in colony B, or in unclaimed/disputed territory between colonies B and C.
3. The economy of colony D, on the planet E, is in a long economic decline due to problems F, G, and H.
4. Colony V has a population of W, and its largest cities are X, Y, and Z ( and provide population figures for each).

Please excuse the "slight" exaggeration, but GDP and GNP discussions can end up arguing over this kind of needless minutia.

Unless, of course, your players are running merchant characters who need to buy nails in Tunghu, in which case set their availability to whatever suits the adventure's plot.