Tax, Bounties and Inflation
Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2008 9:11 pm
Right, inflation first. Hesam is quite right that the total amount of money in the economy isn't changing so we don't get inflation that way. However, the total amount in circulation is changing quite rapidly and that would probably have significantly inflated prices ... if we'd settled on any yet. Wait till we've sorted giving all the new citizens money, and then work out prices from that ... (that is, see how much money is around)
Bounties - I strongly support the measure that the government should pay for helping Shireroth. Despite what some say, I'm actually quite happy if the government is the biggest spender - as long as it spends sustainably. That goes into tax a bit too, but what it means for bounties is this.
We can let people name bounties for now, pay them, wait till we hit critical (eg only 500 left in the Crown account) and then say "right, time to cut back." Then we work out some sustainable amount of bounties we can pay out that we can recover from tax. The advantage of this is that it gets all the money out in one go, and then there's no real major fluctuations/inflation. The disadvangtage is whoever claims in that first week makes megabucks. I'm not recommending this method.
The second option is we work out bounties now. We have to decide what's a reasonable level, and probably mainly base this on how much you get just for being a citizen. (so writing three stories shouldn't make your vote worth more than the Kaiser, for example). We need to quantify (roughly) what you get bounties for and a range. Then the actual bounty is paid out based on quality.
Despite popular opinion, there is actually a precedent for the bounty for a story. It's about 4 erb. I get that from the fact that people in the war got 20 erb, and probably, on average, wrote 5 stories. A lot wrote less, a couple (prominently Ardy and Scott) wrote tons more. But the precedent is certainly a lot closer to 4/5 for a story than 75.
We also need to define how much quality/length affects the bounty. I mean, I made a short story in my civil war thing. It's not particuarly good, but if bounties are defined quite rigidly (story = 10) then by rights I should get 10 for it. Should I get the same as Scott for one of his war time things (which are much longer and better quality)? Should all of Scott's wartime things count as one unit? Are we now counting sagas, for payment purposes, as 5 stories, or as one really long one. Those sort of things need to be decided. Also, the purpose of the story. Personally, I'd say bounties are only for stories that develop the history and culture of Shireroth as a whole. Erik's Barber story, nice as it is, I'd view just as a story, where as Yvain's 'Brookshire in a Nutshell' explains history of Brookshire and develops new areas of culture for it - so that, I think, is worthy of a bounty. But that's open to negotiation.
Taxes need a brief mention. I think the best bet is to decide what a stable 'minimum level' of the Crown account is - probably 500 erb (so that at any moment we can pay out an upgrade bounty or war bonus without having to levy a tax first). Every time the Crown Account is under this, tax is triggered. We then don't have regular tax and an accumulation of Crown money - we just tax as is needed to cover what we're paying out. To not defeat the purpose of rewarding those who build up the nations, taxes have to be uniform and not based on how much money you have (that would be just silly). Either:
Flat Head Tax - eg 20 erb per person, everyone in Shireroth pays.
Flat Duchy Tax - Each Duke pays 100 erb, they get the money from their subjects as they see fit.
I think the Head Tax is fairer, but the Duchy one may be easier (from a Ministry perspective) to administer.
Well, there are some thoughts and comments ...
Bounties - I strongly support the measure that the government should pay for helping Shireroth. Despite what some say, I'm actually quite happy if the government is the biggest spender - as long as it spends sustainably. That goes into tax a bit too, but what it means for bounties is this.
We can let people name bounties for now, pay them, wait till we hit critical (eg only 500 left in the Crown account) and then say "right, time to cut back." Then we work out some sustainable amount of bounties we can pay out that we can recover from tax. The advantage of this is that it gets all the money out in one go, and then there's no real major fluctuations/inflation. The disadvangtage is whoever claims in that first week makes megabucks. I'm not recommending this method.
The second option is we work out bounties now. We have to decide what's a reasonable level, and probably mainly base this on how much you get just for being a citizen. (so writing three stories shouldn't make your vote worth more than the Kaiser, for example). We need to quantify (roughly) what you get bounties for and a range. Then the actual bounty is paid out based on quality.
Despite popular opinion, there is actually a precedent for the bounty for a story. It's about 4 erb. I get that from the fact that people in the war got 20 erb, and probably, on average, wrote 5 stories. A lot wrote less, a couple (prominently Ardy and Scott) wrote tons more. But the precedent is certainly a lot closer to 4/5 for a story than 75.
We also need to define how much quality/length affects the bounty. I mean, I made a short story in my civil war thing. It's not particuarly good, but if bounties are defined quite rigidly (story = 10) then by rights I should get 10 for it. Should I get the same as Scott for one of his war time things (which are much longer and better quality)? Should all of Scott's wartime things count as one unit? Are we now counting sagas, for payment purposes, as 5 stories, or as one really long one. Those sort of things need to be decided. Also, the purpose of the story. Personally, I'd say bounties are only for stories that develop the history and culture of Shireroth as a whole. Erik's Barber story, nice as it is, I'd view just as a story, where as Yvain's 'Brookshire in a Nutshell' explains history of Brookshire and develops new areas of culture for it - so that, I think, is worthy of a bounty. But that's open to negotiation.
Taxes need a brief mention. I think the best bet is to decide what a stable 'minimum level' of the Crown account is - probably 500 erb (so that at any moment we can pay out an upgrade bounty or war bonus without having to levy a tax first). Every time the Crown Account is under this, tax is triggered. We then don't have regular tax and an accumulation of Crown money - we just tax as is needed to cover what we're paying out. To not defeat the purpose of rewarding those who build up the nations, taxes have to be uniform and not based on how much money you have (that would be just silly). Either:
Flat Head Tax - eg 20 erb per person, everyone in Shireroth pays.
Flat Duchy Tax - Each Duke pays 100 erb, they get the money from their subjects as they see fit.
I think the Head Tax is fairer, but the Duchy one may be easier (from a Ministry perspective) to administer.
Well, there are some thoughts and comments ...