Jennifer Government arrived yesterday!
Jan. 29th, 2003 02:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
camwynThat's the book that the popular webgame NationStates was created to promote. I bought it from Amazon last week; it was waiting for me along with a nice shiny copy of Treason By The Book when I got home from class last night. I'll be reading it soon, I just haven't had the time yet.
In the meantime, my little portion of the game is going swimmingly. I'm the ruler of the Commonwealth of Tuonela, which is governed almost entirely on the principle of 'what would the most compassionate option for the most people be in this case'. I say almost, because I get tetchy about things like voting (do it by noon on Election Day or men with tasers come to your house/place of work and march you to the polling place) and tend to dismiss issues that are either irrelevant (death penalty questions during times when we have a zero crime rate) or stupid. For those of you that don't want to click on the link above, or who can't get in because the server is busy, here's my country as it stands at the moment: Tuonela.
"The Commonwealth of Tuonela is a enormous, safe nation, renowned for its barren, inhospitable landscape. Its compassionate, hard-working, intelligent population of 269 million enjoy a sensible mix of personal and economic freedoms, while the political process is open and the people's right to vote held sacrosanct.
The government -- a sprawling, bureaucracy-choked morass -- juggles the competing demands of Education, Social Welfare, and Social Equality. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 21%. A healthy private sector is dominated by the Information Technology industry.
Employers may fire workers without giving any reason, surveillance cameras are banned, the latest Harry Potter book is a bestseller, and a large-scale revitalization of the education system is underway. Crime -- especially youth-related -- is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Tuonela's national animal is the porot, which is also the nation's favorite main course, and its currency is the kantele."
I'm not happy about the firing thing, but when you get information technology workers threatening to go on strike three times in the course of a week and a half (even after you have granted their request for a twenty percent raise over the course of two years each time), it's time to throw your industries a bone so they can get back to the business of making the country work. I used to have a 'well funded' police force, but it became 'all pervasive' somewhere around the 100-million population mark. We used to have a progressive income tax that was higher for those who were wealthy, but that vanished a while ago in favour of an 'average tax rate', and recently we seem to have adopted a flat tax policy without my specifically saying so. Darn Parliament. I'd complain about them not asking me, but we've gone from a democratic socialist nation with an Imploded economy to a 'New York Times Democracy' with a Developing economy, Excellent civil rights, and Superb political freedoms. (I guess people don't mind being rousted out of their La-Z-Boys to go vote as long as they get to choose who they vote for.)
Our most recent political issue involved people complaining about the lack of minorities on television, so the government is going to offer prizes for positive depictions of minorities. The alternatives are imposing quotas to require minority characters or accepting the will of the TV corporations and allowing them to film as they like. Doing that would result in 'the alarmingly racist TV show Bigtopians Say The Darnedest Things' becoming a national hit - not that I know how this differs from simply dismissing the issue - but I feel that people are more likely to come up with positive or interesting TV if they're given an economic motivation to do so. Besides, it's worked in the past.
Oh, yeah - we're the regional delegate to the UN from the Arctic Circle region. It's a little weird having nations telegram me asking for me to come and look at their proposals and approve them so they can be voted on by the whole UN. Me, popular and powerful? Freaky... My UN votes tend to run according to common sense, but there's also a certain element of American constitutional politics there. Namely: some things are not the responsibility of the federal government/UN (take your pick), and should not be enshrined in laws imposed by same. The drinking age, the specifics of the educational system, driving laws, status of various religions, etc. - these are matters for state/national governments to regulate according to their own needs. Human rights need to be as universal as possible, but that's only a small subset of the law, and the less interference in the rest of the law from On High, the better. Although I understand this is something of a Canadian view, too...
I will admit to making at least one UN vote based on purely personal, selfish preferences. I voted for 'remove DVD regionalization codes' because it's a pain in the bum to have to check for region codes when I buy HK DVD's for my own use.
In the meantime, my little portion of the game is going swimmingly. I'm the ruler of the Commonwealth of Tuonela, which is governed almost entirely on the principle of 'what would the most compassionate option for the most people be in this case'. I say almost, because I get tetchy about things like voting (do it by noon on Election Day or men with tasers come to your house/place of work and march you to the polling place) and tend to dismiss issues that are either irrelevant (death penalty questions during times when we have a zero crime rate) or stupid. For those of you that don't want to click on the link above, or who can't get in because the server is busy, here's my country as it stands at the moment: Tuonela.
"The Commonwealth of Tuonela is a enormous, safe nation, renowned for its barren, inhospitable landscape. Its compassionate, hard-working, intelligent population of 269 million enjoy a sensible mix of personal and economic freedoms, while the political process is open and the people's right to vote held sacrosanct.
The government -- a sprawling, bureaucracy-choked morass -- juggles the competing demands of Education, Social Welfare, and Social Equality. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 21%. A healthy private sector is dominated by the Information Technology industry.
Employers may fire workers without giving any reason, surveillance cameras are banned, the latest Harry Potter book is a bestseller, and a large-scale revitalization of the education system is underway. Crime -- especially youth-related -- is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Tuonela's national animal is the porot, which is also the nation's favorite main course, and its currency is the kantele."
I'm not happy about the firing thing, but when you get information technology workers threatening to go on strike three times in the course of a week and a half (even after you have granted their request for a twenty percent raise over the course of two years each time), it's time to throw your industries a bone so they can get back to the business of making the country work. I used to have a 'well funded' police force, but it became 'all pervasive' somewhere around the 100-million population mark. We used to have a progressive income tax that was higher for those who were wealthy, but that vanished a while ago in favour of an 'average tax rate', and recently we seem to have adopted a flat tax policy without my specifically saying so. Darn Parliament. I'd complain about them not asking me, but we've gone from a democratic socialist nation with an Imploded economy to a 'New York Times Democracy' with a Developing economy, Excellent civil rights, and Superb political freedoms. (I guess people don't mind being rousted out of their La-Z-Boys to go vote as long as they get to choose who they vote for.)
Our most recent political issue involved people complaining about the lack of minorities on television, so the government is going to offer prizes for positive depictions of minorities. The alternatives are imposing quotas to require minority characters or accepting the will of the TV corporations and allowing them to film as they like. Doing that would result in 'the alarmingly racist TV show Bigtopians Say The Darnedest Things' becoming a national hit - not that I know how this differs from simply dismissing the issue - but I feel that people are more likely to come up with positive or interesting TV if they're given an economic motivation to do so. Besides, it's worked in the past.
Oh, yeah - we're the regional delegate to the UN from the Arctic Circle region. It's a little weird having nations telegram me asking for me to come and look at their proposals and approve them so they can be voted on by the whole UN. Me, popular and powerful? Freaky... My UN votes tend to run according to common sense, but there's also a certain element of American constitutional politics there. Namely: some things are not the responsibility of the federal government/UN (take your pick), and should not be enshrined in laws imposed by same. The drinking age, the specifics of the educational system, driving laws, status of various religions, etc. - these are matters for state/national governments to regulate according to their own needs. Human rights need to be as universal as possible, but that's only a small subset of the law, and the less interference in the rest of the law from On High, the better. Although I understand this is something of a Canadian view, too...
I will admit to making at least one UN vote based on purely personal, selfish preferences. I voted for 'remove DVD regionalization codes' because it's a pain in the bum to have to check for region codes when I buy HK DVD's for my own use.
