Yeah, I considered the idea of the job cost covering all other expenses but I thought it might be insufficient. I don’t have a strong opinion on the relative value of ISK but in another post I made an attempt to map it to planetside wages using Vodka Index. It gave me an average programmer’s yearly salary of 25,000 ISK. If this exchange rate is correct then the job cost for a shuttle, 249 ISK, is equal to 2-3 days’ wages. It doesn’t look like a lot of money but may still be a reasonable amount depending on the efficiency of mass production of standardised parts. At the same time, 3 days’ planetside salary seems like a reasonable fee for 5-minute rental of a space-based manufacturing line.
So, on the balance of these considerations, I thought that it would be reasonable to assume that part of the costs was covered by surplus mineral requirements. If you have any other arguments regarding the real value of ISK planetside, I’ll be very interested to hear.