If people wanted to do a UBI I would recommend the revenue dispersed not be from taxation its self. As you dont want to cripple a hopefully growing economy. However I would suggest more of a taxation at first on citizens to use that money as capital on a government business. This way the government owns the business because of the taxation and then once the business is generating a surplus of money. It can put a percentage of the surplus back into further growth of that business and a percentage of surplus into a UBI setting. This way taxation doesnt continually increase for UBI but UBI payments increase based off the surplus of revenue of the business. Governments could have multiple industries if they wanted to have a larger UBI in total or because they want the initial government funded industries to have a larger percentage to be put back into the business.

On a side note I'm wary of this UBI. Who would get it? Only people in your settlement that are citizens? Only the initial investors of taxation? The travelers? How would payments be handed out? Etc. I'm neither pro or against it. Just think it should be carefully considered as total economic collapse could happen if done incorrectly.

No work, no pay!

Why are some so salty over this question lol. This is a video game lads.

Posted By Takeda_Shinukage at 11:29 AM - Mon May 20 2019

Why are some so salty over this question lol. This is a video game lads.

People have general opinions on things right away and refuse to ever evolve their individual thinking or opinions. I never understand it. I prefer my views and idealogies to be challenged so I can grow to learning new ways of looking and doing things.

While Im a big Universal Income supporter with extra income earned, coming from working a job, like the cherry on top... I think the main things that Universal income is needed for are already supplied if you stay inside towns (if I understood it right Inns count as giving you rest and food if you frequent them without cost?).

Now I do see Counts and Kings making expedition or other contracts with maybe some pay up front but I don't see any Rulers giving out currency without some sort of gain.

On the other hand as the common folk I DO hope we can bribe/butter up guards with free 'sweetroll' handouts lol, making them more inclined to check/guard the area of your shop more often if you give them baked goods or polish their armor for free as a nonmonetary 'bribe' (so its not illegal lol)

This system was in place for certain societies in history, including Ancient Rome. Ancient Rome had this custom because they felt every citizen of Rome should display a certain level of wealth, for the pride of the nation.

Other societies used other means, a king or queens bounty, or some other method.

So yes, I imagine this will be an option, and in a game environment like this, it may even function.

Thinking of a governmental policy from modern times, and trying to put it into a game would be almost impossible. Your tax revenue is going to be hard enough to support the academia and soldiers. Adding UBI will just devalue the areas monetary gain, and possibly endanger the whole GDP of the region.

There are lots of ways to reward citizens for doing various jobs, be it road building, street cleaning, farming etc which then becomes not about welfare, but more about paying them what is due.

If, for example, we got to a point that there were not enough jobs to go around, then I fear the population would become unsustainable and you would need some to move away, not bribe them to stay put and put more strain on food and other resources.

As horrible as an analogy it is to make, in the 1980's the Tearfund and other Save the World food drives for Africa did a great job of sustaining them through a several year drought, but to the point that the population exploded. There are still too many mouths to feed in an area that is unsustainable for several years at a time (ie normal drought cycles for that area in the world). Either population has to move away to areas they can survive, you need to ship in huge quantities of food or you accept that many will die. The last 'accept that many will die' is a morally bad decision, populations either unable or unwilling to move therefore sending food is the conscientious result.

A game world will not have the same moral dilemmas for many which would then open up the other options for local government perhaps?

I will have this simple system, you want some nice free government money? Welcome to the mines.

Thinking this through, I think that the concept is better handled by more traditional examples of distributive justice. That is, the count would be better advised (1) to provide access to infrastructure (roads and mills) at no or low charge (as opposed to using them to generate fee for use income), (2) to purchase food and resources in bulk (gaining an economy of scale) and then sell them at or below cost (like the Roman distribution of bread), and (3) to provide free or low rent county-owned housing. This would make the cost of living far lower for people in the county, allowing them to use more of the money they earn to invest and pay taxes.

The trick is, as it is for universal income, to generate the revenue to fund the program. I think that higher taxes could actually reduce the total amount any character pays over-all when used to (1) provide infrastructure that is not used as a monopoly revenue source and (2) capture the benefits of an economy of scale by purchasing in bulk and passing on the savings. I am less sure that county housing makes sense. Also, the program will need to be carefully reviewed to make sure it is actually capturing real savings (that the infrastructure is needed and used and that there really is a benefit to economy of scale).

The additional problem is that people often hate taxes and seem to be willing to pay a thousand dollars for a service the government could give them for an eight hundred dollar tax increase. However, such people would sort themselves into other counties -- and, presumably, those counties would not generate wealth as efficiently as the one with the higher tax/higher service rate.

Just for PCs or for NPCs also?

I could actually see this working out. Unlike in the real world, there will be thousands of people trying to decide where they want to be born and hundreds of settlements competing for them and their business. This could make the difference for many of them. If I'm a business owner am I willing to be taxed in order to provide me with lots of paying customers? It could very, very easily pay for itself!

Tangentially, I think that land-owners will absolutely need to be prepared to pay taxes/subsidies to attract quality smiths, etc. It will be the equivalent of state governments giving tax breaks and such to encourage companies to build there.

If the idea is to combat powerty and help people survive witohut having to steal, why not give them simple tasks that are generally good for the county that noone else would do without an incentive, but it isn't too demanding for the basic low pay? It might help the whole county in more than one way. Special work for the unemployed. OR employment challenged who are low on skills required by most of the employers in the county...

Fighting weed in the townsquare, carrying shit from latrines(maybe not the most popular), hunting rats and getting paid for each rat...

Posted By Alberos at 04:40 AM - Thu May 23 2019

Fighting weed in the townsquare, carrying shit from latrines(maybe not the most popular), hunting rats and getting paid for each rat...

Pooping (and subsequent cleaning of latrines) is confirmed not a mechanic you have to worry about. :)