As you know, economics is the science of scarcity and choice, and I would like to point how many of the mechanics we find in TWD have much to do with it.

Now, I am gonna start by taking a step aside from what most (if not all) fans think and make my initial statement:

Saviors are good, they are the real heroes of the story and they will bring society back to the post apocalyptic world.

Ok, maybe I am exaggerating a little, but I think that’s one of the main points of this post. Saviors bring many things that are necessary to reestablish society.

After the zombie outbreak, those who survived started gathering together, and the reason was protection. What we saw in the first seasons was a group of 10–20 people, trying to make their way. They were gatherers, since most of us don’t have any of the abilities to produce the basic goods we need , like growing food. That’s one of the bad effects of globalization, we are really vulnerable to things like a short in our supply chain. We can live without software (this is hard to say to me, I write software), without art, without music, but we can’t live without food. Unfortunately getting food for us means going to the store, which would be empty because zombie farmers don’t farm. We don’t have to go that far, nowadays natural disasters have the effect of food scarcity in stores too, because of speculation and lack of transportation.

We have seen a trend in Rick’s, they are gatherers until they find a nice place to stay, they are relatively happy for some time, then something goes wrong and they have to escape, live as gatherers, find a nice place, everything goes to hell and they start again. So long this has happened with Hershel’s farm, the prison, and is happening in Alexandria, to mention the most significance. This group’s situation seems very volatile to me, and this is so because they aren’t in a strong position. Sure they have proven to be very good with weapons and extremely effective for killing the undead, however they don’t seek to expand their territory, nor find new people for Alexandria. At the end of the day, they are looking for a place where they can have a decent life, without having to fight for their lives everyday. That’s what makes them weak, not fighting makes them lower their arms and become an easier target for foreigns who want what they have.

Historically, people have joined bigger and bigger groups to protect themselves from other big groups, who could take their resources. Having the numbers is good. This is where the early states raise, and we know these states tend to have two things: an army and taxes. Guess what, Saviors have both.

In order to keep growing, early states need an army that can help “convince” others to join their cause. This army will help create colonies that can make them stronger, and also provide protection. But having and army is not cheap, dedicating time to a militar campaign has the cost of not using that time for things like finding or growing food. They need a way to make this army sustainable. An army is a public good, and the way to pay for public goods is taxes. I don’t think it is unfair for colonies in The Walking Dead to pay for the protection of the Saviors, the benefits are that if you are outsourcing protection, you can spend your time in some other way, maybe farming or trying to find the best uses to the leftovers of technology. People in the Kingdom didn’t even know the Saviors existed, and for what we could see, they weren’t doing that bad. They had stability, which is a thing most of us value.