Quite enormous. Without fuel, replacement parts, the ability to make polymers or alloys, electronics, and even in the beginning simple forging... the Firsters were forced to reinvent civilization and technology as everything they had come with decayed and fell away.

Eighty years ago, we made contact again. In my childhood, I knew of people who still remembered what it was to think of the first settlers as a myth and contact as a pipe dream. Of course, by contact, were summarily invaded by an Empire who spends more on a single state event than we have in our entire global budget.


Which brings me to the answer at last: we have highly advanced technology in defense, transportation and the medicine associated therewith. Everything that is not a necessity is a luxury, and its representation reflects it.