[HPforGrownups] Wizard numbers

[manawydan]

No: HPFGUIDX 83674

Caipora wrote:
>needs cleaning and repainting not much less than Platform 9 does. And
>all that track! Maybe most is Muggle track, with the signals charmed
>to keep other trains off when the Express is running. But even that
>implies someone to devise new charms as Muggle systems change, and
>there has to be a few kilometers of track too close to Hogwarts to
>let Muggle track workers approach.

There are certain differences in the needs of steam trains from the needs of
diesel/electric ones (specifically they need to be able to take on water at
times). While we can assume that there's probably a more magically efficient
way of generating a head of steam than a cabful of sweating elves shovelling
coal, you can't magic water out of nothing.

However, once upon a time the UK had a far better railway network than it
has now (much of which was closed down in the 1960s, bad cess to them) and I
don't think it stretches the bounds of credibility that a large chunk of
that has been wafted into the WW for the purposes of the Hogwarts Express
(and any other trains that the WW might run that we don't know about yet).

But I agree with you absolutely about the needs for maintenance, track
repair, and so on.

>Another data point is Mundungis's trade in stolen cauldrons. Is a
>population of 24,000 sufficient so that the makers and buyers of said
>cauldrons don't trip over one another?  Somehow it doesn't seem so.

And also far easier for whoever is responsible for law enforcement to track
down any sharp practitioners like Dung.

>Supporting three professional sports teams, a newpaper, a railroad,
>three or four transport systems, a large hospital, and several
>hundred government employees? Can you envision that?

Make that (I think) 15 professional sports teams, several newspapers, etc,
and you're closer to the mark.

At the end of the day, I think that if you assume that Hogwarts contains the
entire secondary school age population and work up, you have certain upper
limits that constrain you. But nowhere in canon does it say that "all WW
children go to Hogwarts". Until JKR does take that step (and I trust she's
canny enough never to) then the other approach, to look at the WW and try to
estimate how big it _needs to be_ in terms of population is also open to us.
It leads to solutions which I find more comfortable and free from
inconsistency than the first approach (my own figure is possibly higher than
any of the others, namely that the ratio is 1,000,000 muggles to 10,000
wizards to 1 squib. A rough figure only and not based on any maths, but one
that just has the right "feel" to me.

Just by way of an aside, and nothing to do with your post, but it struck me
that possibly Catlady's deep magic acts to maintain, not a ceiling on wizard
numbers, but the muggle:wizard ratio. Catlady, any thoughts on that?

>Certainly wizards have some advantages over Muggles. A charm that
>makes income invisible to the IRS ("Inland Revenue" over there, I
>think) would be a far lesser magic than many Rowling describes, and
>far more useful.

I would _love_ someone to come up with a Fantastic Post on public finance in
the WW. SAdly I don't think it's one i've got the answer to!

Cheers

Ffred

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