The Economist ~ Economic Policy

Day 1,683, 10:07 • Published in United Kingdom United Kingdom • by Spite313



Dear friends,

Today is the first of my Presidency articles which could be described as an actual policy document. In the last year or so Presidential candidates have stopped writing economic policy manifestos, despite it being by far the most important function of the government. At the end of the day all of the functions of government rely on money as both fuel and lubricant, and getting that money and using it is something which should be carefully addressed.



First of all I want to talk about tax. Taxes are set by congress, but the advice of the Minister of Finance and the government as a whole has a big effect on how congress votes. Each day the tax system in place in the UK brings in a great deal of money. That money is shaved from the cost of products on the market and the wages of everyone with a job in the UK. The weapons market provides the bulk of VAT income and all of the income tax, as it is currently the only profitable industry to hire in.

Recently taxes were raised on the advice of the government. The justification behind this was to better fund the NHS, which is an organisation which provides food free to new citizens. At the time the government was running at a very marginal deficit (a few hundred pounds a day on average). The NHS at the time asked for donations to help fund it, and many people came forward. At one point I offered to match the donations so far (about £78,000) with my own money. The reason I made this offer is because I saw a privately funded NHS as a better alternative to increasing the tax burden on new citizens. Under normal conditions I would be fine with tax, but this was an exceptional and short term situation, and I didn’t see the point raising taxes to cover a brief blip in costs.

Under jamesw’s government efficiency savings and the end of the UK baby boom have meant that costs have dropped significantly, to around £20,000 per day. At present our tax income is £70,000 per day, although this is induced by the addition of rockets and will fade over time as the prices of Q1-4 guns (and the VAT they bring in) drops. I expect it will probably stabilise somewhere between £40,000 and £50,000. Now anyone with basic math skills can see that when we make £40k+ and spend just £20k we are running at a huge surplus each day.

To me that’s wrong. Yes we have the potential to up the military spending, but we should also look at reducing taxes. If elected, I intend to propose dropping income tax to its lowest possible level (1😵 and also look at reducing VAT to make our production of weapons more internationally competitive. Low VAT compared with a favourable labour market will make the UK one of the best places to produce and buy weapons.



Now as I said I am happy to finance the UK to a certain extent, but I’m not happy to do so when it’s unneeded. As I am lowering taxes, I’ll also be investing my own finances to take up the slack in the budget.

It’s my intention to invest around £60,000 a day of my money and materials into the UK arms budget for the duration of my presidency, summing up as just under £1,900,000 over the whole 31 day term. This will vastly increase our military potential and allow us to more frequently supply, with more weapons, and to bring in foreign units to back our own national and private military.

Even with a significantly reduced tax income this should more than compensate. It will allow us to spend taxpayer money on the basics of military funding without worrying about buying in extra supplies for exceptional circumstances. Even if our tax income halves, the UK will still have more than enough money to function, in fact it will have a lot more than it currently does now. Most importantly the surplus which is now piling up unused in national coffers will be back in the pockets of the citizens at large.



That is the central tenet of my economic policy, but it does go deeper than that. A couple months ago I asked the Ministry of Finance to once again begin the monitoring of our national income. If elected I plan to vastly increase the scope of our current monitoring function to cover all markets domestic and foreign. Having done it myself for many years, I know it’s a lot of work, but it provides us with a level of information which is utterly invaluable.

It’s my desire as President to not only track all our domestic market costs, but also key markets abroad which can act as strength and value indicators. It’s also my intention to monitor tax and income information for a select number of key countries to provide us with information about relative spending power and alliance muscle, as well as giving us a solid idea of what our enemies have at their disposal. This information will also be periodically published through appropriate channels on the UK forums and ingame, to provide a platform where we can sell the UK as a financial centre and ideal base for business. More big business means more taxes, which means a lighter burden on the citizenry.



I’m going to conclude there as I’m hitting my word limit. But the principle of my economic policy is simple:

1. Lower taxes on citizens and business
2. Extensive personal investment to lift the budget issues
3. Greater level of information gathering and understanding of the economy

With those three things we will simultaneously improve the UK’s income and reduce the tax burden. It’s not something which will last forever, but for one month at least I can help out.

Iain



Ps. I'm not buying votes for any of these articles, cos it sucks. Nobody else should either!