Simulating more of the feedbacks and interactions which exist (i.e., a long list of suggestions)

  • I consider this one most important: Obesity is much too strongly affected by GDP. It would be much more accurate for it to rise with Working Week and fall moderately with Unemployment (representing whether people have time to exercise), rise slightly with Poverty and/or fall with Poor Income (representing whether people can afford healthy food), and fall with Bike Use (should be obvious). With most people having enough to eat and healthier food being more expensive today, this makes much more sense than direct scaling with GDP.
  • The policy objective of Mortgage Tax Relief is to reduce the cost of home ownership, thereby making it more accessible to the lower middle class, meaning more homeowners and fewer renters. As this reduces demand for higher-density rental units but incentivizes suburban sprawl, Mortgage Tax Relief should quickly reduce the costs of State Housing but slightly reduce its positive effects, and increase Car Use over many years.
  • Immigration Rules should have a much greater effect on actual Immigration, lowering legal immigration but shifting some of it to illegal.
  • Sex Work legalization should increase income for Youth, and slightly increase Youth approval directly, since most workers in the domain would be in that category.
  • EV Transition should strongly alter the effects of Petrol Tax: if Motorists are using electric motors, they won’t get angry if petrol costs more, but it won’t make them drive less either.
  • Food Price doesn’t seem to affect Poverty, unless it does so through Poor Income - as food is a significant part of low-income budgets, it should do so; coupled with this, Food Stamps should lower Poverty more if Food Price is high.
  • Motorist Membership should vary more strongly with Car Use and a country’s geography and culture; similarly, the USA should have a special malus to Rail Use that goes away over many decades.
  • High Crime and Violent Crime should reduce Bike Use, Bus Use, and Rail Use while increasing Car Use equivalently, representing problems with bike theft and fear of being robbed on public transit.
  • Compulsory Water Meters should reduce Water Industry by reducing demand for water.
  • Increasing Legal Aid should slightly decrease the costs of Prisons and Private Prisons (as fewer people are convicted), slightly raise Crime (to protect the innocent means excusing some of the guilty to commit more crimes), and reduce the likelihood of the mistaken-identity execution news event.
  • Recycling should reduce Oil Demand, representing the replacement of new plastic with recycled plastic produced through subsidized recycling.
  • Very high Death Penalty settings should increase Crime as it deters, but actually raise Violent Crime (relative to more restrained Death Penalty use) per the well-known “hanged for a penny, hanged for a pound” effect. High Death Penalty should also decrease the costs and effects of Prisons and Private Prisons (if more criminals are executed instead of being put in prison, how prisons are run affects society less), but less so if Legal Aid and Judicial Independence are high (as those reduce the death penalty’s application).
  • Youth Clubs should slightly improve Education over many years (~5?) and over a very long term (~20 years) slightly increase socialism and reduce liberalism, as young people absorb the idea that they (and their own children) should use and expect government-provided services instead of organizing recreation independently.
  • Traffic Congestion should decrease Mental Health proportionally to Car Usage, lower Car Usage and Bus Usage directly (thereby favoring use of air and rail travel, as people tire of being stuck in traffic jams), and cause High Speed Rail Subsidies and policies which increase Train Usage to have larger effects (see previous).
  • Highly selective Selective Schooling should raise Education more over 10 years, reflecting the time it takes for society to benefit from better education for its brightest. It should also raise Middle Earnings and Wealthy Earnings while lowering Poor Earnings, as the smartest kids learn more and can be more successful, but less resources invested in the slower kids makes it harder for them. Also, if Racial Tension is already high, high Selective Schooling should raise it further, as racist school officials shunt minorities into “dumb kid” classes.
  • Stricter gun laws should slightly raise the costs of Police, Prisons, and Private Prisons, representing the costs of their enforcement (similar to Drug Enforcement Agency and Drug Law).
  • Organ Donation should be a toggle policy rather than a slider policy, with these settings: Prohibited, Private Transactions Only, Opt-In Only (USA starting here), Presumed Consent, and Universal (no opt-out).
  • A high Gambling setting should lower Poor Income and raise Wealthy Income based on the amount transferred, or else raise Poverty directly, representing the effects of gambling addictions.
  • Private Prisons should lower the cost of Prisons and vice versa, as the total amount of prison space needed is fixed. Also, if not already done, the costs of Prisons and Private Prisons should scale with (Crime+Violent Crime)* the amount spent on law enforcement, representing the number of criminals * the proportion of criminals who are caught.
  • Energy Efficiency should be decreased by making a state-owned energy company less profitable; an effective subsidy for energy consumption reduces economic incentives to save energy. This effect could be reduced by policies which specifically promote energy efficiency, making those policies more effective overall.
  • Due to the negative effects of Agriculture Subsidies on developing nations (Google “agriculture subsidies developing nations” and you’ll see plenty of articles explaining this better than I can), they should lower Foreign Relations.
  • Cyberbullying Awareness should raise Mental Health over 2-3 years.
  • Plant Diets should positively effect The Environment.
  • Junk Food Tax should have no effects other than approval at minimum level, with them entirely scaled with the slider.
  • Gay Marriage’s approval effects should increase with Married Tax Allowance (LGBT couples don’t like being shut out of it, and conservatives/religious don’t like their tax dollars subsidizing LGBT married couples using it), and Married Tax Allowance should cost up to 10% more as Gay Marriage is increased (as LGBT married couples use it).
  • Ban Female Drivers should be set as inconsistent with Gender Discrimination Act, as they’re fundamentally contradictory.
  • Capitalists should slightly disapprove of Maternity Leave.
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@cliffski

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