Gregaria is a capitalist haven, complete with club med style neighborhoods for those who can afford it, and guns to the heads of those who cant. The people work harder then those in Freedonia, and to be honest im surprised and what you can crank out of a people when you focus on putting them to work. But Alas, they pay the price in other ways, which means you as their leader also pay that price, albeit later.
Now I recognize there is a HUGE difference between real conservatism and capitalism and the labels depicted in this game… A better label would be nice but has no equal in reality given the limits in this game. I say this just so you realize I know im using the terms loosely here
As a capitalist country, it stands to reason that they would elect a capitalist leader, especially when you consider the political parties that dominate Gregaria:
For this experiment, I increased the length of time between elections as you can see above. it works out to about 20 turns. There is a reason for this, as will be explained.
So with that in mind, and still strung out from running the playground that was Freedonia (See: http://positech.co.uk/forums/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=2298 ) , I decided to put on my “conservative” helmet and Play from the other side of the table, and try my best to hold to the following grossly overgeneralized philosophies:
- The free market holds reign, not government control.
- The Government won’t be there for you if you fail.
- You can become insanely wealthy if you do make it. The government rewards winners.
Here’s the rundown, in a format I wish I had thought of long ago:
I want to stress at the outset that I will be a strict “conservative” here. OK, by that I mean I’m going to try really really hard to be a strict “conservative”.
Here’s the economic situation going in:
The first turn treats me to a global economic downturn. I sit and bide my time. I need political capital to take care of the economy. The world is in an overall downturn. This isn’t the time for second guessing. We need to encourage entrepreneurship in order to get things running again.
The second turn greets me with a slap in the face:
…See? This is what you get for trusting people to their own devices. A solution needs to be figured out in the form of heavier police protection for the innocents, we all agree on that. But not right now. There isn’t any money in the coffers,as we’re running a deficit of 23 billion.
Time to kickstart the economy!
- Corporation Tax: CANCELLED
- Maternity Leave: CANCELLED
- State Housing: CANCELLED
I’m asked me about childrens food. I leave it unregulated.
I also reject the international ban on landmines while I brace for the domestic impact of throwing millions out onto the streets. Soon I’m treated with the expected homeless problem. I ignore it for the time being. It will take care of itself. I’m running a deficit of about 18Billion, an improvement but not a good one.
I jack up funding for technical colleges. I choose to reject the ban on alcohol ads. I jack up grants for university students. Out of nowhere the teachers strike which has been festering since the first turn has subsided. One problem down, and I didn’t mean to even solve it. The funding was for different reasons entirely.
In the meantime, it would appear that crime is getting pretty bad. I haven’t been focusing on it at all because I don’t have the money yet. The people are at least trying to take care of the problem themselves, which is a good thing.
Whatever. So long as I don’t have to pay for it.
…and paying for it is becoming more of a problem, as I now have a debt crisis on my hands. I wait a turn, then increase income tax temporarily to cover the expenses while I wait for the trickle down economy to kick in as a result of killing of corporate taxes. Its a shameless communist thing to do I know, but I have no choice.
In any event, while I’m busy rejecting the freedom of information law, and my foreign minister walks in and tells me he’s pissed at me. I use the opportunity to increase spending on foreign aid as a way of saying sorry. I max it out in fact, in the hops that the increase will better my relations with other nations, which will increase my exports, which I need in order to make money. Meanwhile, the ranks of homelessness slowly increases, and the people grow discontent with the lack of support from the government they pay taxes to…
Only one way to deal with social unrest - Decrease the unemployment benefit.
Now, if I remember two minutes ago my foreign minister had a problem. Angry ministers are a horrible thing to have for a very good reason: the more your ministers like you, the more political capital you earn per turn. Ahem:
With that taken care of, it would appear some of my earlier policies have taken hold. The technology backwater problem is no more thanks to education “encouragement”, which has really given a boost to GDP. Suddenly, I find myself with a Budget surplus of 22 Billion! Income tax is immediately dropped to previous levels.
With my new found wealth and increased political capital, I succumb to the need to protect my electorate, which is now mostly comprised of business owners and bankers, and introduce gated communities. Intelligenece Services funding is maxed out as well. given the recent upheaval to my policies from within my own government, I cast a bleary eye out and survey the nation as a whole for an indication of my chances in the next election. Its a long way’s away, but Ive been beating them pretty hard, and my options are limited if I want to make them happy AND keep to my limited government ways at the same time.
I spit my coffee off the balcony onto the homeless looking for food in trashcans below at the news:
…I have about 7 turns left. Plenty of time. Ugh.
Before I end the turn I max out support for mortgage relief to buy off the middle class with my new found surplus. I need the votes AND support. Digital TV is given the go-ahead.
On the next turn Im treated to the high productivity bonus. My surplus is over 33 Billion. I thank the people for their faith in the free markets by dropping income tax by a further 20 billion and maxing out funding on police. Crime is still a problem, but more importantly, and ever more present in my mind, is the need to win the upcoming election. I wish I could introduce some sort of benefit package to buy the votes, but that just wouldn’t be right, you know what I mean?
This is turn 15:
The trickle down economy seems to really be paying off. I give the OK for a major business merger. Im still in Surplus. I end the turn. I get this on the next turn:
Crazy. Im swimming in cash. Gax Tax is canceled. Need votes. When asked, I choose to relax zone planning laws on housing. Gotta keep the conservative/capitalist whatevers happy. I just wish all of this was keeping everyone happy. Ive created alot of angry poor people, and vote time is getting very close. I drop income taxes again.
For my election platform, I claim to cut income tax even further, and abolish property tax. The people don’t buy it. Despite an incredibly smooth economy and high help to the high end, the masses get their way:
Ouch. Oddly enough, its about 4million votes more than I started with. which is more than I thought I would get, given the way things were going with the overall electorate. Playing to make money in the hopes of using it to bribe or beat the masses (depending on the class) is a fantastic way to excel in terms of technological growth, but the strain on the people makes it ultimately unbearable.
See for yourself:
There is a lot of information to digest here. The GDP took an initial hit on account of firing so many state employees in the process of killing off the corporate tax and maternity leave bureaucracies. Money was also spent on education grants, so basically we were saying to the people “if you want a house, go learn how to work and earn one.” Its a fantastic idea, if only enough people took me up on the offer. There were enough to save the economy though, and the GDP shot to heights I never would have bet on.
Crime fell once funding fell into line. Gated communities were a big help, but just having a cop on every corner really put the damper on things in that department. The superhero came at a really good time. 
There is no gauge for quality of life, but there is a gauge for equality, and that gauge is what brought the house down. I was on the road to a classic class warfare situation as the owners of the corporations weren’t even taxed on the profits the workers made.
It would have been hard to show this much in one round (3 years) which is why I doubled it. The right wing economy needs time to take off, but when it does, look out!
The trick now, is to win the election while still holding true to the pattern set above…
-SheepRock
-Edit: clarity and grammar
