So middle earners in the game are weirdly pissed off about everything, and inconsolable over taxes, Only really appeased by tax credits or mortgage relief options, and for some reason compulsory work? Given that the middle class is typically the most content of all income brackets, I found this weird, and thought to list every policy I could think of that’d surely appeal to them.
Like
Small Business Grants (Investment Opportunities)
Enterprise Investment (Investment Opportunities)
Business Startup Campaign (Investment Opportunities)
Intellectual Property Rights (Investment Opportunities)
Dislike
Ban Second Home (They’re landlords)
Empty Homes Tax (They’re landlords)
I also think they’d appreciate the hypotheticals I collated in my Distributism policy pack, a set of concepts built around the theoretical socio-capitalism possible in societies with a massive middle-class.
Like
Cooperative Market Foundation (Investment Opportunities)
Philanthropy Foundation (Pride & Disposable Income)
One could argue many of these should only appeal to the Self-Employed, and while I would think most Self-Employed are Middle-Earners, we’re talking about investment as well as ownership, and I believe all of these potential investment opportunities could be bought or publically traded by a member of the middle class. They buy and rent out entire homes very often, afterall. Hell, I’ve been approached to invest in a solar farm and I’m poor as shit.
It’s true that currently middle income seem to only get bothered by taxed and pleased by tax breaks and being an asshole with poor people, seems like the caricature of the middle classes that you hear in Spain from socialists.
Maybe low corruption could please them, since they are rich enough to pay a large amount in taxes while being too poor to profit from corruption.
I wouldn’t say that they would support taxing wealth and mansions, sice they are likely to see themselves as temporaly not rich.
And now that we are talking about unbalanced groups i would like to say that it feels weird that while playing as libertarian you can’t please self employeds and famers ,since all policies that please them (except for Business Startup Campaign and City farms) is buying votes from them or boycotting their competence.
And for last let’s talk about the most mistreated group in the game, that end desapearing in almost all my games, religious, it feels kinda wrong that we don’t have some light policies about them, like tax breaks to non-profit organizations, to make them, at least, don’t hate you.
Agree on all points. I think there’s a fair argument to suggest the middle class disliking rich and poor, and so we shouldn’t assume that they do either. Conservative/middle class can venerate the rich and socialist/bourgeoisie can despise them. It’s fair to presume a middle earner ought not think beyond their own explicit interests. Though if the game wants that logic, as they’ve utilised in the case of forced work, there’s a case to say it goes both ways.
I absolutely think farmers and the self employed are natural libertarians. The game doesn’t appear to model libertarianism too well, though.
I’ve posted at length about the unfortunate dismissal of the religious voter group. It’s a shame to see them presumed traditionalist. Religion has always evolved to suit the culture it serves. I don’t necessarily think it’d be a government’s role to engineer the parameters of the dominant religion, but to allow the tools to systematically eradicate it implies the opposite ought to possible too. Without going all Homelander on it.
It would be good if the middle class were more dynamic than just being pissed off at taxes. They should pay attention to wages and the unemployment rate for sure.
It actually does make sense for the compulsory work policy to please them at low levels, as those who are working are very inclined to see those not working as dead weight, regardless of the reason they aren’t working. The middle class would only be annoyed by this policy if it affected them.
I would also dispute the point about gated communities, that’s more of a social perspective divide than a wealth divide.
Other than those two point I agree with your post. Part of this game is choosing some voter groups to be acceptable losses, but in the case of the middle class it’s not a choice because they are impossible to please.
