If everything goes according to Wing Commander creator Chris Roberts' plan, a "fully-simulated economy" might be one of the coolest aspects of a game involving gorgeous spaceships shooting each other.
Sure, that 300i is a gorgeous ship, but keeping it fully-stocked with missiles is a complicated process. First, the factory making the missiles needs raw materials, so it generates missions for players and AI units to bring some. If the space adventurers are successful, then great. If they're, for instance, constantly set upon by pirates, the factory will generate missions to eliminate pirates in the area.
If production falters, the price of missiles can go up, which could leave that pretty 300i open to the sorts of folks that don't worry about buying missiles because they keep stealing all the materials.
The economic plan goes much deeper than that, as explained over at Star Citizen's official website. It's actually much more complicated than Chris Roberts' real-world economic plan, where I open my wallet and give him everything inside of it.

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The Star Citizen Economy [Roberts Space Industries]