Quest Deep Periphery Quest (Battletech Sandbox Empire Builder)

lordmcdeath

Well-known member
[X] Let the Free Market take its course

Ah, I see the Austrian school is prevaling. We also need to be very up about what we are doing and why. Get our economists out there early and often. Get people explaining things to our people. Make some personal big money donations to charity for each planet. There are going to be winners and losers from this, but we have to look like we care. Otherwise some group is going to make political hay and while an opponent is fine, and Keynesian vs Austrian isn't a bad discussion point, it could be more malign.
 

ShadowArxxy

Well-known member
Comrade
[X] Let the Free Market take its course

Ah, I see the Austrian school is prevaling. We also need to be very up about what we are doing and why. Get our economists out there early and often. Get people explaining things to our people. Make some personal big money donations to charity for each planet. There are going to be winners and losers from this, but we have to look like we care. Otherwise some group is going to make political hay and while an opponent is fine, and Keynesian vs Austrian isn't a bad discussion point, it could be more malign.

If anything, we should go on the offensive -- this is a matter of businesses that made poor decisions wanting to offload the consequences of their own choices onto the public purse. We have a robust social safety net in place to ensure that harm to actual people is minimized, so really, this is about rich people trying to argue that they are entitled to guaranteed profit.
 
Turn 45 - A Poor Man's Made Out of Muscle and Blood

LordSunhawk

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Turn 45 - A Poor Man’s Made Out of Muscle and Blood

Reading the papers and watching the news has become a bit of a chore as the bad news continues rolling in. More banks are struggling but there are hopeful signs that the recession will be a short, sharp one.

You are very happy that you organized such an extensive social safety net early in your reign, having done so is paying off as in general the poor and middle class are barely feeling the pinch, rather the wealthy and ultra-wealthy are going to have to buy one less ultra luxury car this year.

Indeed most of the ‘pain’ is being felt by the failed companies themselves, the people employed by them will be fine overall, at worst they have to take some public assistance if their savings are insufficient, but they’ll be on their feet just fine throughout. But some of these companies seem to think they have a God-Given right to make a profit, and that the public purse exists for them to cover their losses.

Considering some of the people who are yelping and whining the loudest you find it very difficult to care. One of the newspapers that has always been critical of you is trying to make hay over this by featuring sob stories from people hurt by the crash, but it is exceptionally hard to generate sympathy for a corporate raider who just last year had been profiled in the same paper gloating over dismantling companies and laying off the workers in order to make more money for himself. That he was now having to liquidate assets in order to avoid bankruptcy is, in your opinion, karmic justice.

Granted it is having an effect, but your own press office is doing their best to mitigate things. It’ll blow over, eventually.

Parliament is a mixed bag, with the Senate actually being helpful under the leadership of the newly elected Senate President… the Eldest. Serves the big lug right to be forced to actually take responsibility for that madhouse for a change.

But he does propose legislation to you that you don’t really object to on its face. Considering that the Griffon II Orbitals have been suffering a great deal from economic malaise, mostly through absolutely no fault of their own, and now this economic downturn is disproportionately affecting businesses involved in that planet's economy as they had been highly vulnerable already.

Moreover, the Orbitals are hosting large numbers of geologists who have been rather poor guests, bringing in everything they need from outside and contributing little to the local economy. You know, thanks to Sarah, that this is sadly typical of the more snooty ‘pure science’ types who populate that department so you aren’t all that surprised that they’d rather import everything from Griffin’s Roost than buy local.

The locals are smarting a bit, though, and the Eldest has proposed an assistance package that could help the place recover more quickly than they had.

In essence it is a public-private partnership scheme. Additional orbital workshops would be built for the civilian market at subsidized rates, with all of the labor coming from the small local workforce, in addition there will be a commitment that, when practical, a full O’Neill Cylinder will be built there in order to boost growth even more.

[]Support
  • Costs 250,000
  • +10% GDP Griffon II Orbitals next 5 turns
  • Doubles effect of focusing development on G2O
  • Requires that first open DoME slot not used for Griffon IV project be devoted to building an O’Neill Cylinder at G2O
  • +5 Politics
[]Oppose
  • No effect

The Chamber of Delegates, on the other hand, is being a bit pushier. You’d expected this, considering how many of them owe money and favors to the various players being hurt by the economic downturn.

Their initial proposal you shoot down out of hand, as all it is is a massive bailout of the banks and investment firms at the expense of the taxpayers it is a complete non-starter as far as you are concerned.

Their second proposal is also rejected out of the gate as it would force healthy banks that were more prudent in their investments, but which tended to be much smaller than the now nearly insolvent ones, to prop up their bigger competitors.

Your supporters in the Chamber have been engaged in loud shouting matches with the opposition over the matter and the entire Chamber of Delegates is now completely at loggerheads with each other. This is going to require your intervention if you want to get anything done.

The bills that your supporters are pushing would, in general, enhance the status quo by slightly increasing funding to the unemployment and social safety net schemes, stiffening regulations on investment firms in order to better protect against the sort of cascade failures that just occurred, and increasing the cash on hand requirements on consumer banks combined with a mechanism to automatically close banks in the event of a bank run with increased guarantees on personal accounts via the increased cash-on-hand requirements.

Unfortunately in order to pass any of these you’ll need to bargain with the opposition, who is loudly demanding things that are utterly unacceptable to you. However there are some small areas you might be able to compromise on that will get you what you want, more or less.

[]Option 1Give up on the Chamber this year. No bonuses, no penalties
[]Option 2
  • Gain 2 items from the Desired List
  • Concede 1 item to the Opposition List
  • -5 Support in the Chamber of Delegates
[]Option 3
  • Gain 1 item on the Desired List
  • -5 Support in the Chamber of Delegates
  • -5 Politics
[]Option 4
  • Gain 1 item on the Desired List
  • Concede 1 item on the Opposition List


[]Desired ListOpposition List
[]Increase Funding to Social Safety Net
  • +5000 Upkeep
  • +1 Unemployment Benefits
  • +5 Imperial Approval
Bail out politically connected corporations
  • +100,000 cost this year
  • +1% GDP this year all planets
  • -5 Imperial Approval
  • -5 Approval Change
[]Increase Regulation on Investment Firms
  • -1% Interest Rate
  • +5 Economy Rating
Sunset regulations on investment firms
  • +1% Interest Rate
  • -2 Economic Event
  • -5 Politics
[]Increase Cash-On-Hand Requirements for Consumer Banks + Automatic Bank Closure Mechanism with Account Protection
  • +5 Approval Change
  • -1% Interest Rate
Reduce funding to social safety net in favor of greater subsidies to corporations and banks
  • -1 Unemployment Benefits
  • Gain ‘Regulatory Capture’ tag
  • +5% GDP this year all planets
  • -10 Imperial Approval
  • -10 Approval Change

QM Note - first vote on which option you wish to pursue, then vote for the given number of options on the two lists. When voting just include the description, not the bullet points
 

Jarow

Well-known member
Senate:
[] Support
Definitely planning on going for this one

Chamber:
Desired:
[] Increase Funding to Social Safety Net
Definitely my favorite "Desired" option

[] Increase Regulation on Investment Firms
With next turn coming up, we need interest rate more than economy rating (the imperial one doesn't do much anyways)

[] Increase Cash-On-Hand Requirements for Consumer Banks + Automatic Bank Closure Mechanism with Account Protection
Little better than the other desired (approval change is a meta stat, but for a more useful stat than imperial economy), but still a pass for me

Opposition:
[] Reduce funding to social safety net in favor of greater subsidies to corporations and banks
Kinda want to combine this with "Increase Funding" for the hilarity of that, but think preserving our approval (gets us tax rate) is pretty important

[] Sunset regulations on investment firms
Politics is a meta-meta-stat for tax rate rolls, so that can be managed. Economy event, on the other hand, is potentially much worse than imperial economy. Overall, not a terrible option here.
EDIT: economy event is meta-stat for imperial economy. (Used to be things like Black Friday, etc). This is much more appealing now

[] Bail out politically connected corporations
1% is pretty small, but our two best planets both have less than 10% decrease; slowing that even further helps us. If we go for an opposition choice, this is the one I'd go for.

Options:
None of these are really tempting on either side. I'm considering "Safety Net" and "Bail Out" under option 4, but option 1 isn't something for me to complain about either. It feels like more drawbacks than benefits for all options on both sides, with the more important benefits having stronger drawbacks.
 
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ShadowArxxy

Well-known member
Comrade
[X] Support

The up front cost isn't too huge, and there are solid reasons both in-character and in the statistical meta to go ahead with this.

[X] Option 2
[X] Increase Funding to Social Safety Net
[X]Increase Cash-On-Hand Requirements for Consumer Banks + Automatic Bank Closure Mechanism with Account Protection
[X] Sunset regulations on investment firms

I really don't like the compromise, but I'm willing to allow investment firms to self-destruct by their own actions as long as the social safety net and bank regulations are boosted to confine the scope of the damage.
 

Lancelot

Well-known member
Increase Funding to Social Safety Net
  • +5000 Upkeep
  • +1 Unemployment Benefits
  • +5 Imperial Approval

This one needs to be done now, the other two can wait a year or two for the retards to find themselves out on their ass without the help of the corp owners.
 

Jarow

Well-known member
For the record, these are the employment stats on the sheet:
Unemployment-1
Automation5
Education Level5
Benefits1
It's not that we don't have a social safety net well suited to our needs, but that it's an option to further increase things.
 

Lightwhispers

Well-known member
This is the one I am adamantly opposed to:
-Reduce funding to social safety net in favor of greater subsidies to corporations and banks

  • -1 Unemployment Benefits
  • Gain ‘Regulatory Capture’ tag
  • +5% GDP this year all planets
  • -10 Imperial Approval
  • -10 Approval Change
'Regulatory Capture' is not a tag I want anywhere close to our government.
 

kelgar04

Well-known member
[X] Support

[X] Option 2
[X] Increase Funding to Social Safety Net
[X]Increase Cash-On-Hand Requirements for Consumer Banks + Automatic Bank Closure Mechanism with Account Protection
[X] Sunset regulations on investment firms
 

Artifex

Well-known member
[X] Support

[X] Option 2
[X] Increase Funding to Social Safety Net
[X]Increase Cash-On-Hand Requirements for Consumer Banks + Automatic Bank Closure Mechanism with Account Protection
[X] Sunset regulations on investment firms
 

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