Pointed out by a user on steam, I think its worth pasting my reply here to canvas opinions of the hardcore players before I make a change
You raise a very interesting point, regarding the way in which something like unemployment should (due to the impact on lower consumer spending) should actually hurt GDP.
In the real world this is obviously true. High unemployment reduces consumer spending and reduces GDP. However, I am nervous about introducing this, because its a circular reference.Donât get me wrong, its accurate, and realistic, and the gameâs code can totally handle it, but there is a problem in that it creates a âdeath spiralâ in game terms. GDP drops, so unemployment risesâŚso GDO dropsâŚso unemployment rises⌠and in general the cardinal rule of game design is to never have virtuous circles or death spirals!
HoweverâŚit may be safe to add this, because there are certainly antidotes to it. I guess the game has two main antidotes:
socialist version: expand the money supply by QE or helicopter money, meaning people have an artificially stimulated level of discretionary incomeâŚwhich should boost GDP and become self-reinforcing
capitalist version: Reaganomics/Thatcherism: Cut taxes, so people have more discretionary spending, so GDP risesâŚ
These are already in the gameâŚso it might be ok for me to sneak in a cup to GDP when unemployment is high, and collect some data to see if that totally unbalances the game or notâŚ