A Man with a Plan
Guy Kilmore
I would like to outline how I would support the basic tax structure for Thailand.
I ideally would like to see all Income Taxes and Vat Taxes falling between 1 and 5%. I feel that Food, Gifts, Grain and Diamonds should have an Import tax hovering between 1% and 25%. I would look at protecting the Weapons, Iron, Oil, Wood, Housing, and Moving Industries by keeping Import taxes at least 50%.
Money in the hands of our citizens will spur on activity. Hard work should be rewarded and more money flowing around will spur on trade. I have heard a lot of our citizens discuss the concerns with strengthening our baht, while this is important; I am concerned of a hidden danger. That is our currency exchange slowing down. I was reading articles in other countries and the issues they faced in beta. It was “currency stagnation” for lack of a better term.
Jack Roberts was able to keep this from happening in his term. His efforts to build up the gold supply of Thailand kept currency exchanges flowing which made both exporting and importing profitable. This had the side effect of increasing the value of the Baht.
If we keep our money circulating it should be possible to rely on imports for some of our needs. There are many countries without the resources we have, most countries have access to the grain resource. I have stated this before, but I would hope to arrange a guns/houses/moving tickets for food. There are many small sized and medium sized countries in need. I would also support G.M.s creating their own merchant traders to bring high quality food to their employees as part of the incentive for working for them. If we can continue growth, this structure would have to be re-evaluated. I hope this provides the freedom for our populace to seek work and develop investments in creative and active ways. I also think that this tax structure should provide enough funds for the government programs in existence. It may need to be tweaked as time moves on, but I hope this strategy provides enough of a jumping off point for our development.
My next article will focus on Government positions and programs.
Comments
out VAT and income taxes are fine, but maybe we should re-open some of our markets. raw materials.
today one thing interesting happened about the baht valorization, one company owner was complaining with me that with tha baht worthing more he had to reduce some of his wages, and export less things.
One of the reasons why increasing our baht is not a terribly pressing concern. I agree opening our markets are important, but we should focus upon certain markets and to encourage development in others. I am siding with developing the markets that bring gold to our country and encourage currency exchange.
Stick the word "value" somewhere up there. 😛
i think that the RAW material market that we need to work better now is the Iron one.
>I have stated this before, but I would hope to arrange a
>guns/houses/moving tickets for food. There are many small
>sized and medium sized countries in need.
Could you clarify exactly what sort of an exchange program you have in mind in this regard? This isn't a particularly straightforward proposition; Korbin and I are currently exploring the feasibility of such an exchange program with a high-Grain nation, but I'd very interested what sort of arrangements you envisage. Are we looking at government companies selling products on a foreign market? Some sort of incentive plan to convince private companies to trade in a specific country?
I hesitate to use Government Companies to do this. I personally feel that the government should stick in really two sectors and that is Defense and Hospitals.
I would look at an incentive program arranged between the two countries. We would help subsizided to cost of getting the export license or something along those lines. This would take some of the good will of our own GMs and therese I admit which is the huge flaw on this plan.
I would also set a contracted quota. (Thailand company X agrees to sell Y number of units in exchange of Foreign Country's Company A agrees to sell B number of Units.) Of course if a profit is being made, I imagine that this would be less of a worry. (I know some wood/housing companies made money selling to the Netherlands early on.)
Another option is the government buying X Goods through a "Government Operated Merchant Trader" and making a trade for the needed goods. This option is definately not as "sexy" as the earlier one. It is clunky and involves the government too directly in the market.
I am banking that if we can keep our currency exchange fluid that there will be importers who see the benefit of selling to Thailand. The key is finding a country who has a similar situation going on. This prevents us from needing traders or having to subsizied trading programs
The obstacle in setting up this kind of trade is not the will to do it, but really the program doesn't have this kind of function to support it. I would also look to GMs for there ideas on making this work. (Any company owner worth their salt should definately be invested in keeping the wellness of their employees up.)
To add to the above, I also don't see the importing of bread as our sole source of food. Local companies will most likely exist. I am hoping that future importers will help augment the market, not become the sole market.
countries as eBrasil are suffering now crisis in prices because they stay closed for too long 😛
I am not sure if we are agreeing or arguing Antonio.
@Ealb: I know Korbin and I talked a bit about what to do, but I haven't further discussed it with him. I would be curious to hear your ideas on this matter.
agreeing 😁
What is your plan that I will continue to supply Thailands market with cheap Q3 wood (3.5 Bath)?
Id be willing to "loan" the govt my weapons company to attempt a guns for food exchange. All I ask is that while we undertake the endeavor, since I will be personallly not profiting from it, is that the govt pay my employees' salaries.
Also if we do undertake such a program and my weapons company is used, I will personally pay out of pocket to increase the organization's inventory to ensure that we can maximize the amount of food available to Thailand.
One problem we encountered with using Weapons as the trade good in an exchange is inventory space. Weapons aren't something a nation buys up on a day to ay basis unless they're at war; they stockpile them. Normally, the means by which Weapons are stockpiled is by having the producer generate a large pile of goods and not releasing them to the market until needed. This becomes... trickier when the producer is a foreign entity beyond the nation (or even its citizens') control.
In the negotiations we've been muddling through, the idea had been put forth of the manufacturer placing a large stock of Weapons on the recipient nation's market at exorbitantly prohibitively prices. Something like 20g or 30g per. They would remain on the market in this form as proof of good faith to ensure that the stockpile existed, and wouldn't accidentally or intentionally be sold off in the mean time. When the recipient company needed them, they would request the producers coordinate a release and reduce the prices to accessible levels.
If this were to work, there'd need to be contracts governing the sale of the arms without the transfer of possession. IOW, the company would agree to take payment upon production and posting to the market, and to on demand coordinate a release for minuscule or non-existent prices (as the purchase price was paid prior to delivery).
Im discussing a this idea a bit with a few leaders (presidents) I know personally to see if this idea would be agreeable and something that could work.
I think in terms of strictly production, we'd have to have a weapons company upgrade to probably q4, be fully staffed with higher skilled workers, and exchange for q3 or q2 food to see some true benefits for our nation.
@ Guy
This could be difficult considering the price that is attainable for Valyrian Steel, INGSOC, and Thai Weapons Elite by exporting.
Will the govt be paying in baht equal to the value of gold that would be normally obtained by exporting? I really cant see of a way for the govt to profit (maximize trading agreements) other than either (a) owning a weapons company themselves or (b) borrowing a company from someone willing to put his own personal profits on hold for a month or longer if need be in order to ensure Thailand obtains the most beneficial trade agreements.
In your scenario, the GM would be taking a loss selling at a low to the govt, and still be paying the higher wages out of his pocket. A medium needs to be developed.
I dont think I explained it very well, so Im going to try this again:
Ok for example...say I can sell a q3 weapon for .75gold...would the Thai govt pay me equal value in baht? And if so, it will provide less opportunities for trade agreements as there is no value to other nations to exchange such items for the same price of weapons they can get currenty on their markets.
By simply "loaning" my company to the govt for a month, the govt can negotiate with another nation and offer Q3 weapons for maybe .5 or .4 gold per weapon in exchange for X amount of Q2 or Q3 food and simply pay the wages of the employees making the opportunities or offer much more attractive for prospective nations to consider the agreement. The govt would win in this situation providing they are able to negotiate the correct amount of food that is equal to the share of gold per weapon and it is more than an average Thai food company is able to produce.
@Jack: I do hear what you are saying, I am definately open to the idea. I imagine though that the cost of leasing the company to the government would be similar to that of the cost of purchasing the weapons. I see this negotiation as a two way street. For instance if the Thai Government agrees to buy (My math is NOT on as I am typing this in the abstract) 100 Q3 weapons and have them placed on the market at an exhoborant price of the foreign market until need. In exchange the Foreign government would agree to buy 400 Q3 Food and agree to do the same. This method puts the money out of the government hands and places in individual company owners. It also gives us the ability to negotiate with different companies.
Of course your leasing idea would work much as the same. It would still require the leased company to be willing to keep those weapons on the market until its day of need.
If the government makes money or breaks even in this exchange I would consider it a boon. We may lose funds, but keeping the wellness up of our citizens improves production, with increases sales, which brings money to our coffers through taxes.
Of course we are talking about manufactured goods. Another method of bypassing this is simply have a Government Owned Merchant Trader....or heck Private Organizations...going to countries and buying their grain from the market and PMing GMs of food company with prices.
Of Course the above does have its flaws, because it places food companies on the benevolance of these traders. (If they haven't made their own). What I hope it would do is a savvy GM of that nation with grain would see this and our tax structure and commence the importing.
The second option is achievable, as I do it now with my SO for the weapons company to purchase iron and other goods for my employees; it just requires a lot of scouting out of other countries, currency purchasing and exchanging, and knowledge of exchange rates.
Most of the owners of companies have more than one org with the sole objective of purchasing raw materials in foreign markets..
It's something that is being done for quite some time now.. and anyone can do it..
I honestly dont see how (or even why) would the government be of any help with this... The GM's are smart enough to do this on their own.
But if you really want to make a difference you should try to organize a group of companies that use the same raw materials and negotiate with a foreign raw materials company for a better price. Asking them to sell cheaper for a larger quantity.
just my 2 cents..
@Bl1ndn3ss: You are 100% right. Sometimes I have to check my willingness to keep to make sure it is happening, but then, I am not sure if I want to be going through the effort of getting them grain.