Understanding Cause and Effect

[H1D5]

Hey, so, hopefully someone can help me. I’ve read through the manual a couple of times, and I thought I had a grasp of the way the arrows work, cause and effect, but something doesn’t seem to add up. I feel as though I’m missing something really important, so perhaps someone can explain it to me.

Basically, I’ve started a new game, and I have been going through my current issues (the red circles). So, my country has a Technology Backwater. I see that there are three inputs, Technology (Red, Fast-moving), Science Funding (Red, slow-moving), and Creationism vs. Evolution (Green, slow-moving). I took this to mean that the value of the Backwater was low, hence it being an issue, and the reason for this is that poor technology and science funding were reducing its value. The solution, then, would be to increase Science Funding, which in turn would increase Technology, which would increase the value of the Backwater, which would make it okay again. Seems kind of straight-forward, right?

Next, I go to the next issue, Uncompetitive Economy. There are two inputs, Productivity (Red, Medium-pace), Corporation Tax (Green, Slow-moving). By the same logic, the reason for the Uncompetitive Economy is low productivity, which is reducing the value needed to bring the UE back out of the crisis zone. Tackling productivity is a fairly simple business of increasing spending on health and education, no sweat. However, I considered reducing Corporation Tax in order to balance out the positive and negative inputs. Low CT, I measured, would have a positive effect on the value of the UE as it would give businesses more capital. However, rather than helping the situation, RAISING CT increases the positive effect on the UE. How does this work? The only way this makes sense is if the CT was the cause of the UE, but productivity has a much greater effect on UE and it would fly in the face of the logical solution to the Technology Backwater.

Am I missing something?

[Georgia]

@H1D5

Hey, so, hopefully someone can help me. I’ve read through the manual a couple of times, and I thought I had a grasp of the way the arrows work, cause and effect, but something doesn’t seem to add up. I feel as though I’m missing something really important, so perhaps someone can explain it to me.

Basically, I’ve started a new game, and I have been going through my current issues (the red circles). So, my country has a Technology Backwater. I see that there are three inputs, Technology (Red, Fast-moving), Science Funding (Red, slow-moving), and Creationism vs. Evolution (Green, slow-moving). I took this to mean that the value of the Backwater was low, hence it being an issue, and the reason for this is that poor technology and science funding were reducing its value. The solution, then, would be to increase Science Funding, which in turn would increase Technology, which would increase the value of the Backwater, which would make it okay again. Seems kind of straight-forward, right?

“Technology Backwater” is a situation. Situations have more of an impact the bigger their value is. Since this is a negative situation, a high “Technology Backwater” value is very bad, caused by low science funding or education. Increasing science funding will increase technology, which reduces (and eventually removes) the impact of this bad situation. But it increases the value of good situations related to technology. Think about if: if something is bad, like Organize Crime, you don’t want very much of it–but if something is good, like a Productive Economy, you want a lot of it.

Next, I go to the next issue, Uncompetitive Economy. There are two inputs, Productivity (Red, Medium-pace), Corporation Tax (Green, Slow-moving). By the same logic, the reason for the Uncompetitive Economy is low productivity, which is reducing the value needed to bring the UE back out of the crisis zone. Tackling productivity is a fairly simple business of increasing spending on health and education, no sweat. However, I considered reducing Corporation Tax in order to balance out the positive and negative inputs. Low CT, I measured, would have a positive effect on the value of the UE as it would give businesses more capital. However, rather than helping the situation, RAISING CT increases the positive effect on the UE. How does this work? The only way this makes sense is if the CT was the cause of the UE, but productivity has a much greater effect on UE and it would fly in the face of the logical solution to the Technology Backwater.

Same thing here. Raisin corporation taxes [i]increases[/] a [i]bad[/] thing, the Uncompetitive Economy, since taxes make you less competitive. Raising productivity lowers the bad situation, and increases the (currently hidden) “Productive Economy” good situation.