Author Topic: NationStates (Read 511214 times)

smjjames · « **Reply #210 on:** January 29, 2012, 10:59:02 PM »

A recent poll has revealed high levels of dissatisfaction among the populace about tax rates.
The Debate

"Do you know how much of my year's work goes to the government?" demanded angry worker Larry Wong. "Too much! Government spending has gotten way out of control. It needs big cuts in welfare, health, and education. But leave those subsidies to business alone. We need them to create jobs."

"It's not the AMOUNT of tax, it's where the burden falls," says student activist Pip Dimitrov. "And at the moment, far too much of the burden is falling on the poor. People on high incomes still have more money than people on low incomes. I don't think I need to say anything more than that."

"I don't object to the amount of tax, I object to where it's being spent," says social reformer Dave Clinton. "I'd like to see everyone have a choice as to where their Fossilias go every time they fill out a tax return. Everyone would feel a lot better about opening their wallets if they had a say as to where the money went. I think you'd see a lot more public money going to education and a lot less to business."

Woo!, struggle of the 99%!

Guess which one I went for.

Although all three could apply for the state of the US economy and debt...

deoxy99 · « **Reply #211 on:** January 29, 2012, 11:15:09 PM »

The 3rd one?

FiahOwl · « **Reply #212 on:** January 29, 2012, 11:15:32 PM »

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FiahOwl · « **Reply #213 on:** January 29, 2012, 11:19:28 PM »

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smjjames · « **Reply #214 on:** January 29, 2012, 11:22:03 PM »

Nope, second one. The country description says that the government is already focused on education anyways.

Haven't gotten any science/space related stuff yet, which I'll be going for myself. I'm going to try and get the Kaeshar Empire heavily into science.

atomic7732 · « **Reply #215 on:** January 30, 2012, 06:08:06 AM »

The Armed Republic of New Pegasopolis
Corrupt Dictatorship. 93 million citizens. Devotion to social welfare.

... uh what? Is it just me or does that not sound very corrupt?

The Empire of Solea and Rift Auspikitan
Democratic Socialists. 96 million citizens. Keen interest in outer space.

FiahOwl · « **Reply #216 on:** January 30, 2012, 08:32:57 AM »

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vh · « **Reply #217 on:** January 30, 2012, 08:34:41 AM »

its just you, all pegasusses are corrupt, bring in the unipolize!

smjjames · « **Reply #218 on:** January 30, 2012, 09:30:16 AM »

Empire of Kaeshar
Democratic Socialists. 8 million citizens. Notable for its absence of drug laws.

However that's just from the fact that I legalized marjuana in the initial setup. Haven't had a chance to diverstify much yet.

Hey Bla, where did you get the list on reply 32 back on page 2? I've already found the chart (although the NSwiki seems to be down atm), but I have no idea where the list came from.

Bla · « **Reply #219 on:** January 30, 2012, 10:00:33 AM »

Quote from: smjjames on January 30, 2012, 09:30:16 AM

Hey Bla, where did you get the list on reply 32 back on page 2? I've already found the chart (although the NSwiki seems to be down atm), but I have no idea where the list came from.

Here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NationStates

smjjames · « **Reply #220 on:** January 30, 2012, 10:03:58 AM »

Quote from: Bla on January 30, 2012, 10:00:33 AM

Quote from: smjjames on January 30, 2012, 09:30:16 AM
Hey Bla, where did you get the list on reply 32 back on page 2? I've already found the chart (although the NSwiki seems to be down atm), but I have no idea where the list came from.
Here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NationStates

I mean the listing of left and right groups, or did you make those up?

smjjames · « **Reply #221 on:** January 30, 2012, 11:49:06 AM »

48 minutes ago: Following new legislation in Kaeshar, high-income earners pay a 100% tax rate. Now the economy has a 'fragile' status.

Dangit, I need to stop tanking the economy..... and thats not really what I meant....

Bla · « **Reply #222 on:** January 30, 2012, 12:05:15 PM »

1 day 1 hour ago: Following new legislation in Starrie, citizens who become homeless are immediately executed.

Kol.

Also,

The Issue

After a recent election instated a small dog as member of parliament, the fringe group "Brains for Ballots" has demanded for the government to tighten voting restrictions.

The Debate

1: "The ignorant have taken over Blaist Blaland," yells Akira Obama, from atop a soap box podium. "It is time that the intelligent retake the polls! Mr. 'Scruffy' is a disgrace to democracy and should be taken out of office instantly! I propose we issue mandatory I.Q. tests for every voting citizen and if they are found to have below average reasoning ability - namely lacking the foresight to see that electing an inanimate object to office will cause disaster - then they shall be excused from the responsibility of voting."

2: "Umm... huh?" inquires village idiot, Tobias Longfellow. "I voted? When? Oh, yeah. Please don't make me not vote. The ballots are really tasty, and where else would I get my fibre? Everyone should have the right to vote, no matter what their favourite greenhouse is! Then we can all get the government to do what we want! First thing I think we should do is, uh, ban fruit? I hate fruit."

deoxy99 · « **Reply #223 on:** January 30, 2012, 12:23:22 PM »

Bla, while your economy is crumbling, mine is alive and well. And the nation is socialist.

And at the beginning, it just went up and up and up (and the nation was socialist at this point).

Then, capitalism struck the nation. It still went up.

Then I switched back to socialism. It's still going up.

You apparently fail at this game with the economic part of it.

smjjames · « **Reply #224 on:** January 30, 2012, 12:30:06 PM »

I'm trying to get it started up, although when I joined the WA, something made my economy tank a bit.

Bla · « **Reply #225 on:** January 30, 2012, 12:53:28 PM »

Quote from: deoxy99 on January 30, 2012, 12:23:22 PM

Bla, while your economy is crumbling, mine is alive and well. And the nation is socialist.

And at the beginning, it just went up and up and up (and the nation was socialist at this point).

Then, capitalism struck the nation. It still went up.

Then I switched back to socialism. It's still going up.

You apparently fail at this game with the economic part of it.

Socialism requires that the means of production are owned by the people and run cooperatively. Have you banned capitalism in your nation?
I'm not sure it's socialist by definition, seeing as the private sector makes up almost half your economy. The game puts nations into categories based on some very arbitrary measurements of how much "freedom" (according to the game) there is in the economy, people's personal lives and in the political sphere.

Anyway, "failing" in the game only means going against what the developers think make up a good nation. There are some socialist nations with a good economy for sure in the game, but in the end... It's a guess game which no-one can truly become good at (only the developers who programmed the effects of the different policies into the game, kol).

You saw how legalizing prostitution internationally got mine and Atomic's economies up from imploded to 14 and 11? It makes no sense.

smjjames · « **Reply #226 on:** January 31, 2012, 09:22:55 AM »

Happier workers maybe? Still, doesn't really make sense.

Anyways, question on the Nation Analysis. In the employment category, the higher the negative number, the worse unemployment is, right? The way the data is set up for that graph makes it a bit unclear. Or at least it's just not explained very well.

Bla · « **Reply #227 on:** January 31, 2012, 09:36:51 AM »

I agree, but yes, so far I've assumed negative means more unemployment.

Actually there's not a shred of anything which makes the nations possible to compare to reality. Funny as most of their units are, they're useless. My economy is some number between 0 and 100, and is called "imploded", "fair", "good", "frightening", whatever... What does that mean IRL? It can impossibly have anything to do with GDP the way it suddenly jumps up or down dramatically all the time.
And it seems to jump either up or down when you implement a policy, ignoring any sort of long term effects, like education, which would be expensive immediately, but have most important effects in the long term, when those who were sent to the ~~schools~~ prisons actually get to ~~work~~ be enslaved. (is that how you wanted it, Dartomic?)

Darvince · « **Reply #228 on:** January 31, 2012, 09:42:21 AM »

Quote from: Bla on January 31, 2012, 09:36:51 AM

when those who were sent to the ~~schools~~ prisons actually get to ~~work~~ be enslaved. (is that how you wanted it, Dartomic?)

wtf bla

FiahOwl · « **Reply #229 on:** January 31, 2012, 09:43:27 AM »

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Bla · « **Reply #230 on:** January 31, 2012, 09:50:58 AM »

It seems like it's actually called "Employment" (in the title), I'm pretty sure the higher, the more employment you have. The unit also seems to indicate that.

deoxy99 · « **Reply #231 on:** January 31, 2012, 03:05:13 PM »

Nicholas Condor, a prominent Bigtopian activist and soapbox orator, caused quite a stir last week when he publicly called for the complete extermination of the people of Spheron Rilmu, accusing fellow citizens of being 'sub-human', 'immoral', and 'really ugly too'. Citizens Against Intolerance, a pressure group aiming to reduce social inequality, has demanded that the government put more resources into combating hate speech. Coincidentally, another society, also called Citizens Against Intolerance, has stood up for Mr Condor, claiming that inhibiting his speeches would be a violation of his right to free speech.

The Debate

"I can't believe we're even debating this," says Maria Trax, who was present at the infamous speech. "Doesn't it worry you that a man, who would obviously be happier if we all died horrible, painful deaths, is allowed to walk around in public? Let him continue and he'll cause a riot! Free speech is supposed to protect people! But talking about genocide and killing, well... that doesn't help anyone. It breaks society. It drives us apart. Hate speech is a very serious crime, Leader. You can't just ignore it."

"Words by themselves can't hurt anyone," counters Faith Tan, a free speech advocate. "We don't need to be 'protected' from hearing different opinions for goodness' sake! Oh, what a boring place the world would be if we all had the same thoughts! You can't punish people for disagreeing with you! That's crazy! I hate my mother-in-law, but if I told her so and she then tried to stab me with a kitchen knife then the problem is obviously hers - not mine."

"I agree to an extent," ventures Hack Rifkin, your Minister of Domestic Security. "But insulting one person is not the same as insulting an entire social grouping. The wrong word in the wrong place and you WILL have violence on the streets: that's the reality we live in, whether you like it or not. If we want to make any real difference then we need to nudge cultural values in the right direction with government awareness programmes and the like. Educate the masses! Laying down a reactionary law will just fuel resentment in the long run."

Sorry people who are debating this, but hate speech is protected by the freedom of speech. If I were to punish people for hate speech, it's no longer free anymore.

atomic7732 · « **Reply #232 on:** January 31, 2012, 04:04:17 PM »

"It's not our war? It's not our war?" cries (in)famous New Pegasopolis-born fascist Alexander Goethe. "Well maybe it's time it became our war! New Pegasopolis should take a more active, and by 'active' I mean 'hostile', role in international politics! This ethnic squabbling will be over when the war is over, and WE can end that war and purge the impure! To glory, pegasi!! Sieg New Pegasopolis!"

Naru523 · « **Reply #233 on:** January 31, 2012, 04:43:49 PM »

"Creeper hunting is a cruel and horrible 'sport' for the wealthy," says Calvin Love of the 'Protect Anything Cute and Furry Society'. "How can you possibly justify it? Oh, they witter on about 'tradition' and 'pest control' and other such nonsense, but really we all know it's because these sadists love to torture poor, innocent animals! Hunting must be banned!"

wat

"I'm firmly against the slaughter of dumb animals," says Anne-Marie Forever, while feeding an infant creeper with a milk bottle. "It would be best if the animals didn't die, and hunters could still do what they love to do - how about instead of shooting them or sending vicious canines after them, the hunter runs up to his quarry and gives it a symbolic 'tap' with his hand? Now isn't that much nicer for everyone?"

wat #2

FiahOwl · « **Reply #234 on:** January 31, 2012, 04:47:27 PM »

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Naru523 · « **Reply #235 on:** January 31, 2012, 04:52:14 PM »

The popular daily cartoon strip "Barry the pony" has always been highly critical of the political system within New Dirtville, but in recent weeks the cartoon has depicted the main characters throwing melted cheese at unpopular politicians. Inspired by this, protestors armed with fondue sets stormed a government building, cheesing off several government officials.

lul

FiahOwl · « **Reply #236 on:** January 31, 2012, 05:01:16 PM »

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smjjames · « **Reply #237 on:** January 31, 2012, 05:21:11 PM »

atomic7732 · « **Reply #238 on:** February 01, 2012, 06:18:59 AM »

7 hours ago: New Pegasopolis was reclassified from "Corrupt Dictatorship" to "Psychotic Dictatorship".

Fail, now I'm the only one of the three that's psychotic.

Bla · « **Reply #239 on:** February 01, 2012, 08:26:03 AM »

I wonder why......

Quote from: atomic7732 on January 31, 2012, 04:04:17 PM

"It's not our war? It's not our war?" cries (in)famous New Pegasopolis-born fascist Alexander Goethe. "Well maybe it's time it became our war! New Pegasopolis should take a more active, and by 'active' I mean 'hostile', role in international politics! This ethnic squabbling will be over when the war is over, and WE can end that war and purge the impure! To glory, pegasi!! Sieg New Pegasopolis!"

What did you expect?