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 | |
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 1 | Give 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 List | Opposition 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