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AVRO DANKASTER

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  1. TL;DR - Hey, it ain't much, but it's honest work. Give me a ring for all things gov. What do I like? The opportunity GTA:W provides. What do I dislike? How time-consuming it can be! ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Greetings! Contrary to a popular belief, we (The GOV) aren't exactly a group of shadow brokers. Just a few of our recent public use projects include: - Partial funding, guidance, regulation and management oversight of Los Santos' first casino, in conjunction with the development of a deeper gambling-oriented local legislation based on our findings - Event Permit forms for everyone to use any city property for their one-off needs which include City Department presence request (PD, FD, but also Cultural Affairs) - Cultural Affairs initiative to support all artistic roleplayers and cultivate the environment for this niche brand of roleplay to thrive in, helping the artists and art-focused businesses with operational expertise, funds and exposure - Further development of the public works department, especially the Bureau of Transit, increasing the roster of the active drivers & dispatchers (still hiring!) All of that is on top of our flagship economic project - grants and credits scheme available to all registered business - which is in full swing (almost, we have two applications on hold as of right now) and the licensing and registration platform, managed and maintained by our employees, and the routine operation of the city departments. The City Council situation is a tricky one - the legal roleplay scene is still relatively fresh and fragile as far as impactful positions go, however myself and FM are working with all interested parties to facilitate a smooth transition to electability. Our current framework is based on gathering all interested parties to build a council infrastructure within the districts - and by interested parties, I refer to anyone who has been in touch regarding any council initiatives with myself or the server administration. The process is still in works, so if you are interested in all things City Council - don't hesitate to let us know! I'm happy to answer all inquiries regarding government business, activity and plans - be it here, over forum PM's or in a Discord chat. Perhaps I should update my forum signature to carry this message far and wide. Anyway, to wrap it up - we're not omniscient. We don't know everything nor do we know the ultimate best solution for every problem and/or situation we might encounter - and if you feel like you have something to talk about, please, please, please - reach out! I'm glad to exchange ideas and concepts any day of the week.
  2. We've introduced both live chat and offline message capabilities to the site based on situations like that. It's not as good as a round-the-clock live chat but it works, we hope. ?
  3. We review our faction bank logs to help us keep track of the incoming transactions, not to mention the payment reports on gov.gta.world that we ask for. You didn't receive the funds because we've received no documents - if you are unsure as to how or what to send, you could've simply contacted us. And yes, the economy as a whole doesn't work. All we have here is a disagreement about the fundamental choices we have to make going forward.
  4. What makes you think salaries and government programs are our only expenses? For example, running fees for things like Palmer-Taylor Power Plant - millions a month to emulate the costs of electricity generation which we consider within the property tax have been agreed upon a long time ago. I'm not kicking the can down the road, I'm merely stating that the current state of things was designed in an OOC manner before I've assumed my IC position, yet here you are trying to lay it down at my feet. More than a year ago, I've highlighted the problems within our economy but I haven't found much support. What I'm saying is that if people would choose to spend their money in ways that support roleplay projects, businesses would become financially viable. They don't do that, and that's a roleplay quality issue. Our disagreement stems from the fact you consider a script solution a better one, while I prefer a solution based on working with the players themselves. That's my opinion and I'm sticking with it, because so far I've had better results working with the people rather than the script. Until very recently, the salaries were lower than what any freelance job would net you on a per-hour basis, and from what I've gathered most of the freelance jobs still pay similar (if not greater) amounts. Then we're in agreement, as weekly paychecks is something I've suggested before. I don't think we're understanding each other here. I'm against small changes that aren't connected. I'm for a coherent economic plan - which isn't what's being suggested here. I'm not against fixing the script. I'm against fixing parts of it as a reactionary effort, which is what's being suggested here. Changes like this led to the situation we're in right now (eg. road tax introduced to curb high-end vehicle use) I've shifted away from doing construction under grants program (that's how it started) after a series of fraud incidents. That's an IC circumstance that my government is facing, and that's the response I've opted for. We don't have two different currencies in play here. On that note, a house in Venezuela can be worth more than a mansion in the United States if the said amount of bolivars is greater than the quoted amount in USD per the exchange rates. On this server, by removing money out of circulation you decrease the total value of the economy by that amount - which would lead to deflation of that currency (increase in purchasing power of one unit of it) if the prices weren't fixed. Almost everything on the server is considered fixed-price, including most of the production mechanisms and supply purchases, hence the whole statement of "combating inflation" is ridiculous. In real life, removing money out of circulation does not affect the output generated by the economy as a whole. Here, it does - as the output of the economy is the action of converting money into supplies. If you decrease the total amount of money, the amount of money you can convert into products - as that's how our economy works - decreases. Hence the potential output of the economy decreases. In other words, it shrinks. The $50 beers were prices commanded by the business owners and the price mostly consists of profit - the price of acquisition didn't change, and that's what ultimately we look at when looking at inflation statistics. The legal faction salaries are being reworked from a script perspective (the on/off duty counter), and that's something I've brought up on page two of this thread. Additionally, given that our tax revenue is decreasing due to the script jobs revamp, the salaries will most likely go down. Not until I fully examine the city income patterns for the current period. I simply disagree with the logic of the argument you're presenting. What I believe is that it's okay for a beat cop to be a customer. No players were reprimanded for being customers, and that's precisely what I'm stating they should be - customers, primary spenders. Not buying things from script-ran dealerships or properties, but being the customers of player-ran businesses. Interact with others. Roleplay. Is that what you consider unsuitable? Being a customer?
  5. Are you sure you've sent the documents we've asked for? Edit: I've checked, and no. Beyond the initial $125,000 we've released for the first stage of construction based on your application, we've received no additional documentation regarding the construction process, hence the funds weren't released.
  6. The Public Works Department was hiring just last week, the Bureau of Public Transit will be in the upcoming week or two. I'll resume hiring for the remainder of the departments after I fully establish the legal grounds for their operation through the new charter and ordinance. Meanwhile, I encourage you to simply send in your resume to the directors of the departments you're interested in as a proactive way of getting your character's name into the conversation.
  7. You're addressing an IC argument in an OOC manner? Why? What decision have I made to favour the group? The economy favours the group of people within the active cycle. Currently, there's only one active cycle - which is between the taxes and the government payrolls. That's by design that's in place for far longer than I am. The people in that cycle are the primary spenders - which would not be an issue if their expenditure didn't return back to me as tax and/or was frozen on their accounts, but instead was used to support the tertiary economy. Which is an issue, first and foremost, of LOW ROLEPLAY QUALITY. Not economics. I'm not mischaracterizing anything, what you're asking for is continuous support for businesses for which there is otherwise no interest because of the perceived "RP value" they bring to the table. And I disagree with that concept. I don't understand what your problem is here. You can create any business that you want and its creation will be supported financially by the government for a fair period of time (months, most often), during which you're supposed to spark enough interest among the players for them to make use of your services. If your business generated no interest, why should it exist? What roleplay does it generate? It's the lack of a culture of spending to support the projects people like that's the problem. Not the economy. Lowering legal organisation salaries only reduces the total amount of money your potential customers can spend during any given period of time. 1. The income of legal organisations equals the taxes we collect. If we can afford to pay the salaries from the amount we're collecting, the salaries are in line with the economy of the server. They aren't in line with the reality, because if they were, we'd be forced to consider salaries of roughly $900 to $1000 /a week/ to be the gold standard, and I haven't noticed anyone advocating for the slowing down of the pace of the server that much. 2. and 3. The script encourages them by paying them fees for customer visits regardless of whether the customer was satisfied, used the services within or anything else. And I've already stated that I find this idea incredibly dumb. And no, I can't address that issue because I lack the access to the backend which would permit me to take away the script payments from the businesses that have received it. Reduction of the paychecks doesn't result in anything but a change of perception of what is considered "wealthy" on the server. Don't pretend it fixes any root cause of the issues with the current economy. Reworking the script - no. Work with the players instead. Choice, not coercion. Otherwise, again, we fall into the trap of a centrally planned economy. The government programs are in place specifically to decrease the start-up costs of the businesses, and they do that job exceptionally well. By trickling money out we shrink the economy as a whole which would result in less room for businesses to operate. I thought you wanted more of businesses to be able to operate freely. Also, no. I don't recall the prices changing that much since the start of the server. Perhaps you should take a second or two more to think over your response, then. "It is what it is" is a reference to the fact there are admin restrictions in place. I've specifically stated that the high salaries are the result of high government income and that the low roleplay quality is an issue because the high salaries aren't utilized by the employees as the should. Nowhere did I say that high roleplay quality translates into a higher paycheck. What I've said is that higher roleplay quality translates into positive economic trends as people are more aware to how important it is for them to support other roleplayers with their spending. The requests I receive cover the needs of the department, the current rosters, and planned spending for the period in question. The actual budgets are planned accordingly to the department position quotas and certified lists we've determined while entering the office. All other expenditures are limited and require full breakdown of reasoning behind it, fleet maintenance figures have been determined through observation of fuel expenditures over a period of time, any civil liability payments trigger immediate re-review of the IA proceedings, and many, many more steps like that which permit me to examine and determine every unit of appropriation for the period in question. The budgets are limited. You're asking for a paycheck reduction, and I'm not touching that until the administration is done with their revamp. It's not unrealistic from an economic point of view. It's not my role to enforce roleplay standards all across the server, it's to utilize the government resources to the best of my ability and develop a working government administration which can be the bedrock of the legal roleplay on the server. You fix that by encouraging players to make a decision and transfer the funds to the business they support. I'd much rather encourage the behaviour I want by convincing the player population that it is beneficial for everyone to do so rather than coercing them to do something through the script. Roleplay has always been about the freedom of doing what you want, and what you're suggesting goes against that. Hence, the fundamental disagreement.
  8. Salaries aren't an incentive program and nowhere did I state that they are. The expectation of the best possible service is supported by the fact that by paying a comparatively high salary increases the average quality of work by increasing the total amount of applicants - that permits for selectiveness while maintaining sufficient workforce figures, and that's the logic my character uses to support the current levels of expenditure. Here's the thing - either we're talking about a coherent economy, or we start disconnecting certain aspects of it from each other because of "creative freedom". We can't have both. The expectation of profitability for a business has to exist or nothing will make sense anymore. It's not about suspension of disbelief - it's about the core values on which we're building the economy. What you're basically hinting at - and, I'll simplify here a little - is a utopian system of enterpreneurship in which the idea itself is sufficient for your business to exist indefinitely, regardless of how good or bad you are at actually excecuting the said idea. We shouldn't be focused on what RP the business generates if we're talking about the economy. Because if that's the case, we'll be falling into the trap of a centrally planned economy in which we have to determine the viability and profitability of every business idea ever, and then constantly tinker with the balance sheet of the said business for it to stay accurate and reflect the previous profitability quota. Do I need to mention how problematic that would be? And before we talk about suggesting, let's say, dividing the businesses into categories of income and addressing it that way? That's just group politics and on a purely ideological level, I disagree with it because of how detrimental to individual performance it would be. What my programs do is simple and in line with my own attitude - you're free to start any business you want, and we're more than happy to be an incubator for you and cover your expenses for a set period of time. But, eventually, the execution of your idea will have to be good enough for your business to continue purely on its own merits. On top of that, you constantly seem to understate just how lenient the government is with funding for businesses. We're well aware of how difficult it is at the moment, but it does not mean we will remain inconsistent. We expect profitability. However, the credits we offer are interest-free and split into so many payments no business would ever have a problem with making them on time if they put in a modicum of effort. You'd know that if you'd pursue that path. The idea of removing part of the taxes from circulation is one of the most misguided I've ever heard. It would mean the economy would be haemorrhaging money, and given the fact the removal of server-side payment script jobs is imminent, it would eventually result in a massive decrease of money supply in circulation. Don't forget that the prices are static, and neither inflation nor deflation applies, and with the decrease in money supply, we'd eventually reach a point in which there is no longer sufficient amount of cash in circulation to purchase anything. A long-term solution which isn't sustainable can't be possibly considered sound economics. Be so kind as to not misrepresent my argument. I've said that they can supercharge it, not that they supercharge it at the moment. They don't, due to a plethora of factors, most of which aren't anywhere near the realm of economics. And,no. It's not an indication of a problem with the levels of pay, it's the indication of a general disconnect between layers of the economy AND a roleplay quality issue. High salaries they receive are warranted by the current state of the economy, and the fact the ways in which they can spend it are restricted is silly. But, it is what it is and given the said restrictions are in place, I shall use them imposed by the administration further down as an argument against the claims of actual (not perceived) devaluation caused by government employees. I'm sorry, but it's not the first time you bring this up, so I feel like I need to be brusque. You don't know how the city budgets are handled and you've never made any effort to contact us about what we, as the office of the mayor, do with the budget requests we receive from the departments. I can't possibly take your argument seriously if all you do is create a strawman and misrepresent the reality. What you bring up about the "robocop" meme. How's that anything beyond a roleplay quality issue? How do you expect an economy change to improve roleplay quality? It goes the other way around, positive change in roleplay quality improves the economy. I'll humour your claim that a decrease in government salaries will improve the roleplay quality. The end result will be a pool of people who know how to spend their money "better" - that is, supporting your local businessess - but have less of it to go about. That said, I disagree with your claim. People do not join the government agencies for money - they do so because of the streamlined roleplay experience it provides. You don't have to worry about creating your own roleplay when the whole server population does it for you, every day. We're talking about the OOC level here, of course. On an IC level, I maintain that high salaries bring in more applicants, which in turn permits for selectiveness. Arguing semantics is such a pointless endeavour. They have money that they can spend, and they got it from the government - hence, primary spender. I don't recall saying there's anything easy about fixing it. Tax cuts will translate into lower government spending, which in turn can translate into lower salaries. None of which addresses the lack of spending, the fixed prices and unlimited supply conundrum, the lack of proportion between acquisition price for perishables and more expensive assets and all the other of dozens of economical inconsistencies GTA:W has generated over its lifespan. Tax cuts alone will not fix the economy. That's why I've said your thread isn't about fixing the economy, it's only about lowering the government salaries because your perception of social status isn't what you'd like it to be due to how high they are at the moment. I'm solving your problem, not fixing the economy. You will no longer feel that the wealth you've accumulated is somehow worth less because fewer people will have the means to live the way your character does. The devaluation claim is inaccurate and doesn't take into account how this server economy is currently designed. How do they devalue the currency of people around them if they are restricted on what properties can purchase, and there is no scarcity of supply for anything except properties, prices for which are predetermined by the administrators and heavily regulated afterwards? Moreover, nearly all other prices on the server are STATIC, which is another fact inconsistent with your statement, as if the prices always remain the same, the purchasing power of one dollar is not decreased regardless of the amount of currency in circulation. It's only about the perception - which you've highlighted before, but for some reason strayed away from here. Why is it an issue? There is one - solo ownership of a mainstream, script-crutch supported business. Which is fucking stupid and I hate every second of it. It shouldn't be the place of the script to determine the profitability of the business, but the players. But, oh well. The circumstances are what they are, and it was considered to be an essential part of the economy. That's besides the point. There's one point on which I agree with you - the economy, at the moment, isn't what it should be, and requires a lot of work across nearly all aspects of it. But the things suggested in this thread are so far out from what I consider a valid economic policy that most of them aren't even wrong. The real problem here is the fact that regardless of what we do with the government salaries, there are far more pressing roleplay quality issues among our community. All niche businesses will fail as there are no customers to compete for and all other businesses will optimize to make the best use of whatever script crutch we throw out there because of misguided economy "ideas" brought up in threads like this. It's detrimental to roleplay to involve the script patchworks. Period.
  9. Alright. Let's clarify a few things first. We fund the construction costs through the credits program. I don't recall being asked about what our definition of construction costs is, but it does feel like there are a few misconceptions regarding it in place already. The definition of "construction costs" we use is the grand total quote provided and includes materials, labour and overheads. It does not mean the price set by property management and I don't recall ever stating that it does. We run all construction (and existing property acquisitions) through the credits program for a simple reason - should a business fail, we can utilize the leasing agency to have the building reused by another person. Another project. I see no reason to permit people whose business endeavour failed to keep their property. And by taking the property, we effectively erase the liability of the original requesting party towards the government. No harm, no foul. The grants are specifically in place to cover advertising costs, initial hiring, minor fleet adjustments, all perishables and running costs of the business so you can take your idea and run with it. The credits are in place to cover all major purchases - construction or existing property, vehicles, you name it. Again - we use the credits whenever the asset purchased can be reused by another person at a later date should the initial requester's project fail. We're quite open-handed with the program funds, and I don't think I ever dismissed anyone coming to us with a question, be that IC or OOC. Now, to the core argument. There are major issues as far as the design of the economy goes. How the prices of perishables are out of proportion compared to more expensive purchases, for example. A lack of coherent economic thought throughout the process is clear to me - as I've said in another thread, most of the economy changes seem like patchwork, reactionary efforts to circumstances frowned upon by the administration rather than the implementation of a plan. Which resulted in an overtaxed population which supports the current level of government salaries. However, what is absolutely essential to understand here is the fact that no "new" money enters the system. It does not increase the total supply of money on the server. It is not "printing money". It's redistributing it, and at the moment, too much of it is being redistributed. This is what you should be starting this thread with. The root cause of the problem. That's why our first order of business after rewriting the lost City Charter is an ordinance that constitutes tax cuts all across the board. It's not that the salaries are too high, it's the fact that we, as the government, can afford to pay the salaries that high. We can pay high salaries, so we do. It's the logical thing to do from an IC point of view to spend as much as we can to provide the best possible service - and again, not a single budget request was actually approved in full without a comprehensive summary and reasoning behind it. Hell, government employees which earn a lot can become clients of local businesses and supercharge the economic growth of the city. Here's how I see it - government payrolls create a layer of primary spenders. Taxes converted into salaries, which are in hands of people who are most often vetted both IC and OOC and encouraged to roleplay fleshed-out characters, which, I hope, includes the modicum of selflessness as far as the spending patterns and support of roleplay goes. In the perfect world, all of the people paid by the government would be the first-in-line customers of all local businesses. But, often enough, they are not - and here's where I see one of the areas where we can improve. That's a problem of... well. Subpar roleplay ability of some of the people in question, really. Even though there are limitations in place as to what they can and can not buy, they can't turn them into happy-go-lucky customers they could be. There's a lot of work to be done in this area. It's not "Fixing The Economy" that this thread is addressing. It addresses the perceived unfairness of the system because the current state of the economy favours another group that happens to not be you. But, if you look at it from a point of view of an economist, by decreasing the government salaries, all you do is removing money out of the pockets of your potential clients without putting it back into yours. Focus on the actual root cause. Discussing how to address the symptoms is counterproductive and boring. And to wrap it up: the main post just takes it at face value for some reason, so here's a question: Why are the high salaries paid by GOV agencies a problem, again?
  10. A brewing license is a script tool that covers the utilization of the script to brew alcohol. Period. You need it to not have your brewing equipment/brewed alcohol seized. If you want to sell your liquor, you need an actual liquor sales license that we offer. What you can do without the license is give your alcohol away for free or consume it on premises when they are considered inaccessible or of limited access to the public. Of course, the underage sobriety laws are applicable here.
  11. I believe I should've formulated my previous post with more clarity. They've pooled a sufficient amount of money to keep it running without GOV funding for a day and a half as I refused to fill their bank account without next month's budget request on the table. They wouldn't be able to keep it running for more than four days, give or take a few hours, even after spending every dime of private funds they have. There are problems with the design of the payment scheme for the departments, one of which is that it doesn't differentiate between an hour on-duty and off-duty. That's a known problem which is being worked on for quite some time now. The delay is caused by - from my understanding - the fickleness of the script. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The government covers the welfare AND the basic income expenditures both from our faction bank balance. The government revenues are the collected taxes and licensing fees. Period. If people do not continue to generate taxable income, wealth or assets, our revenue drops. In other words, our taxes are limited by the amount of activity and the type of activity players commit to. Therefore, the city revenue can be scarce. It simply exceeds our current expenditures by sufficient amount as to not be a problem. In other words, we're running a surplus. Is it unrealistic for a municipality with sufficient revenue to appropriate all funds per the departmental requests to guarantee the best possible service to its citizens? On a side note, we never actually approved a request in full. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Road taxes... aren't used to cover road maintenance. They are considered general taxation and are appropriated as so. That, of course, doesn't stop us from developing towards this area of roleplay - The Department of Public Works runs road maintenance operations on a moderately regular basis (although I admit, most of our field employees are within the US timezone). ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Why don't we discuss the background of the events that are brought up as the pinnacle of government corruption? The establishment in question was making full use of all government possibilities we've presented to the public. Simultaneously, it refused to acknowledge the licensing requirements introduced on the very same platform used for the grants and subsidies it enjoyed. Was the situation escalated unnecessarily? Possibly. Was there room for a civilian complaint? Very well might have been. But, given the fact that the people strongest condemning our activity were the ones most actively sipping on our Kool-Aid when it was money-flavoured? That we have received zero civilian complaints about the situation - more than that, the claims were of no civilian complaint system being in place? And any sort of roleplay was tossed out of the window in favour of unsuccessful admin interventions as soon as trouble arose on the horizon? Hell, not to mention I've been contacted by the administration to explain myself as to why people that never were in the government act one way or another. Well, I'm a firm believer in common courtesy. Extend me yours, and I shall extend you mine. It's quite difficult for me to understand how extrapolating a narrow situation in which no communication was exchanged between myself and anyone across the aisle leads to a broad judgement of all government activities. I wouldn't even mind that much that the situation in question was stopped twice for administration to review it - in both cases, our argument and the actions taken afterwards were considered a properly roleplayed endeavour. However, given the backlash we've received is of an OOC nature and seems like an attempt at discrediting us more than bringing up valid concerns after conducting careful research of our activities, I can hardly assume the perspective in which the Government is The Evil Eye and its servants without disagreeing with the mildly dishonest approach and combative attitude used to convey them. I'd greatly appreciate if the next time you have doubts about our policies, expenses, or, anything at all, really - you contacted us beforehand to discuss your findings, concerns or questions. I believe it would spare you quite a bit of writing. For example, I invite you to contact us so you can sit in during one of the budget appropriation meetings. Matter of a fact, I invite anyone who's interested. We're here as much for you as we are for ourselves.
  12. Budget appropriations are held to a standard. Most recent example - LSPD underestimated their budget request for the 16/DEC to 16/JAN period and the high command ended up donating their own money to keep the paychecks flowing. No funds leave the city treasury without a written budget request and a record of an IC appropriation meeting to discuss the request, and we sure as hell aren't refilling anyone's coffers outside of the requests. We'll be closely examining city revenues over the next month or two. Only after we've gathered sufficient information we will determine whether to institute a hiring freeze, payroll cuts, tax increases (or decreases) or any other method of adjustment of municipal budget. At the moment, the revenues of the city exceed the expenditures.
  13. I was under the impression most of the changes you've mentioned here were heralded as the efforts to undermine the patterns of unrealistic spending. What I'm hinting at is it isn't a planned, rehearsed economy policy but a reactionary effort to the roleplay quality and OOC circumstances, from the lack of a better phrase. Which isn't how economy should be done, of course. How about, "If nobody has $600,000 in cash, why are there $600,000 properties on the market?". It's just another, small issue that compounds on a number of other, small, issues. They are cheaper to buy precisely because the maintenance costs have grown. The $20,000 vs $6,000 vehicle tax argument is an argument of "choice". It's only by coincidence you haven't been punished, and, by extension, haven't suffered the consequences of the said choice. Two weeks later, the result is they have another $12,000 less, but your character is a criminal. Which is precisely why our government is introducing the affordable housing program - which is players living in the government-built houses, with their rent simultaneously going towards their future buyout price for the property. That aside, there are houses available /right now/ for anyone seeking lodging that are well within the $200,000 starter kit. We can't possibly blame people for taking advantage of the poor decisions of others. It is my belief that the server is simply not established enough for it to accommodate what you'd call the "upper echelon" roleplay. There are ways to work around it, but it all boils down to what I bring up in the summary. The market has shrunk because it was artificially pumped up in the first place. ___________________________________________________________ I've made my personal thoughts regarding the economy known in a number of threads. The economy is NOT in the right place. Some of the changes made by the server administrations were right, and some of there were not. While Spencer's post is tackling a very specific area (upper echelon RP), I'd rather cast a wider net. We need a FULLY FLEDGED economic policy that will address precisely towards what system are we headed, and how do we reach that state. One that will actually be set in stone, followed and worked on. That's what I consider the crux of the problem here. Bad change is worse than no change.
  14. Feature Showcase: Economy system - Government finances Information This showcase is an introduction to the government finances and how they interact with the server as a whole. City of Los Santos, first and foremost, are its’ people. Whether you roleplay a cab driver, a gangster, a miner or a bartender, we all create the living, breathing organism that we call Los Santos. Currently, there is a single orthodox method for the money to enter the server – and that is through the interaction of the players with the script using the network of script jobs. Back in the day, a server would also have methods of removing the money from the server – most often called “moneysinks”. GTA:W does away with this idea, instead focusing on having the money that entered the server move between the players, and – if need be – freezing it to cool down the economy as a whole. Government is the most important tool used to achieve this goal. In general, most of what you do on the server is taxed. Most purchases, your paychecks, even your bank account. More often than not, the tax isn’t designed to be a method of creating extra revenue for the government, but an attempt to regulate the market. Take the road tax as an example – the idea behind it is to discourage spending every penny you have on a vehicle by it carrying a continuous cost with it instead of being a burden-free asset. There are arguments both for and against that tax, but that’s not what we’d like to discuss today. Back to the taxes: every paycheck you can see the very visible hand of the government reaching into your pocket. I reckon there aren’t many players that truly know all of the places into which the money goes afterwards. Let’s begin with the mandatory, script payments. For example, do you remember the $5,000 an hour basic income each of you have received at the start? It’s been taken (and still is being taken) directly from the government faction bank account. Effectively, the new players receive a lifeline from the old players – the government is only the conduit. Up until recently, the LSPD and LSFD wages were deduced directly from the GOV account. Thankfully, we managed to put a stop to that. Right now, we discuss the faction budgets on a monthly (soon to be quarterly) basis. Everything from paygrades of a Police Officer III to an unit cost of a baton, the fuel and maintenance costs of the vehicles – all of the factors that we can reasonably account for are considered into the budget requests, reviewed and addressed in a commensurate manner by the City Government. It’s a solution we feel helps with the immersion for all parties involved – being wasteful /matters/ now. Finally, there are the actual IC initiatives of the City Government. To give you an example – the government funded a construction of 12 new apartments in Hawick just this last week. All of which will be available to the players to rent, and eventually, buy out. Your tax money is used to support businesses through subsidizing the salaries of roleplay employees that don’t bring much value otherwise, to allow people to purchase the vehicles essential for their business operation (keyword, essential. The government doesn’t tend to approve a fleet of 7 Volatuses for a skydiving school) or to simply give them a little bit of cash to cover the first few months of their office lease. We would like to take a moment here and remind everyone that you can tap into a plethora of funds through the government Business Stimulus Package – just head to http://gov.gta.world/ and register. And we can assure you, that all of this is just a start. We’re determined to funnel the tax funds towards active and fruitful roleplay initiatives of all shapes and sizes – don’t be afraid to reach out to the government and our current mayor for more information! Example of vehicle budgets for the LSFD
  15. Would you like to discuss any specific failures of the program?
  16. A script solution where a script solution isn't required. Franelli brings up valid points when we're discussing theoretical business endeavours and the so-called "standard" school of business management. Businesses should strive to be profitable. But given the limitations of our community and our platform, some sort of an intervention was required for the system to accommodate a larger number of businesses instead of the hyper-specific, currently-in-demand groups. After all, extending the logic of profitability, only the businesses in demand have the right to exist on the server - and that would "optimize away" any creativity. I didn't introduce in-character solutions that address this exact issue for them not to be taken into account. Any business owner can use the program government has already rolled out - subsidized jobs which permit you to hire people and pay only a fraction of their salary. The fact that the government shoulders most of the wage-associated costs means even with a very limited customer base you have the potential to generate profit. That, in conjunction with the business grants and loans we've rolled out, means anyone. And I mean it when I say "anyone". Can start up almost any business. All you have to do is apply for a grant to cover the start-up costs & then apply for subsidies to employ a sufficient amount of personnel at a minimal cost to you. The problem? Our approach requires a business owner to actually reach out in-character and put in some effort to get the programs going. I really don't think that holding their hand by scripting around every issue they encounter is what we need. Ultimately, the goal here should be to teach the people who want to run a business... HOW to run a business. For example, I disagree with the whole concept of getting paid by the script for the fact people show up to your business. It's a patchwork solution at best, aimed at businesses with a set base of operations. It does nothing to help the true player-to-player experience of service-based businesses. To summarize, my approach is to decrease the costs of running a business to encourage continuous operation, but NOT to allow people to profit from running a business that has no IC demand for it. Any profit that your business generates should be a result of you, convincing other players, to spend their money. And it is precisely that ability to convince other players that separates the wheat from the chaff as far as businesspeople go. Therefore, I believe a script workaround is redundant.
  17. I'd love to have a ledger available over UCP instead of having to track everything by hand. All for that. I believe the recent introduction of bank transfers to offline characters pushes the UCP transfer functionality quite far down on the to-do list. It'd be a nice addition, but the time constraints issue has been already solved.
  18. New players receive $200,000 in basic income to "start their roleplay story", rendering this point moot.
  19. AVRO DANKASTER

    Taxes

    Sure, but the two systems (factions and contracts) are developed separately - one is script and one is a roleplay legislative measure. Let's have both!
  20. AVRO DANKASTER

    Taxes

    Wanna bet on that after we see the implementation of the government contracts? The whole purpose of taxation is enabling those roleplay jobs to exist, initially with government support, and later on within the private sector as the money starts flowing.
  21. AVRO DANKASTER

    Taxes

    People that share your mindset shaped the LSRP economy for years. Would you prefer that end result? The system you're addressing hasn't even gotten off of the ground yet, some of the scripts are still in a work-in-progress, and I'm anxiously waiting for our appointed government to address their part of the equation. Should the economic experiment we're conducting here fail, the blame can rest squarely on the shoulders of me and the others who share my hopes. Call me radical, but this is the system I believe is the best option for actual roleplay development of the community, and if you'd like to discuss the economic theory behind it, be my guest. Stating "It's just not going to work here" is, frankly, beyond the level of discussion we should consider constructive. Let me restate it clearly - the system is designed to punish grinding and incentivize roleplay jobs. I can not force anyone to buy into the system and start participating, let alone helping build it. All of my posts have a simple goal - planting a seed of doubt in your mind and at least have you try to participate in the economic system we're pushing for instead of dismissing it outright.
  22. AVRO DANKASTER

    Taxes

    Vehicle prices and house prices are an issue separate from the tax system. Keep it on topic. Some people disagree with the vehicle price hikes as much as you do (myself included). Moreover, even summing up the top two prices you bring up, $220,000 + $150,000 you still end up under the wealth tax cap with $30,000 in wiggle room for you to use as you please for your spending. None of the price increases are player-caused. It's all an administrative decision to prevent the server as a whole from burning out economically and I firmly believe the prices will start dropping as the upkeep & vehicle maintenance systems get implemented. Moreover, the lack of non-script jobs you mention is about to be fixed by the new government contracts legislation. Hell, you can even affect that process IC by interacting with your councilman. It will create the initial layer of wealth redistribution and close the cycle - that, plus the taxes we see will lead to money circulating throughout the community. From there it's up to you to find ways of putting enough of the stream into your pockets to satisfy your character's lifestyle choices. Final note - the roleplay jobs will not take off until we all don't come together and acknowledge it's the way to go and begin supporting each others' roleplay efforts. It's a community building exercise as much as it is an economic policy. That's why spending is incentivized and hoarding is punished.
  23. Absolutely, but why incentivize them by giving them ability to freeze wealth for some out-of-thin-air script income? As far as the rulebook goes, I believe I've made it very clear that introduction of the Money & You 1.0 has to go hand in hand with making any amount of cash a fair game for thieves. Loosening up the rules on that is a must, otherwise holding money in the "tax haven" of your residence will have virtually no drawbacks and will be the single best way to go around the tax system. Financial crime is a bit more tricky, but when I really think about it, I see no reason to limit all but the biggest players on the market from defrauding their customers. Perhaps a listing in the government registry of financial institutions would be that stepping stone from able to defraud to unable to defraud - it'd open up another layer of roleplay, parabanks vs banks, small vs big institutions, high risk vs low risk. All in all, I do not want to see wealth generating more wealth through script. I want to see wealth being used to generate more wealth through smart IC investments. If we really dissect the design of the system post-update, we reach a simple conclusion - having any money that isn't actively being invested into making more money via roleplay enterprise has drawbacks. The more you have, the more noticeable they will be - taxation will eat up your bank account, robbers will empty your pockets and burglars will clean out your cash stash. In my book, that's incentive enough to minimize money on hand or in your bank account and make it a very worthwhile endeavour to pursue any sort of business activity. Introducing any script-based profit system that relies only on the money you have is counterproductive towards the current effort of building a booming tertiary sector of the economy.
  24. Joint bank accounts for businesses are already in place within the update, expanding them to cover spouses as joint personal accounts is definitely a very interesting idea. Savings accounts, dividends account, anything of the sort - big no-no for me, I do not want to see script-generated profits just because of the wealth you have. Put it to good use as an actual investment, run a company or have a player-ran bank open a savings account for you if they are confident they can give you the interest rate you want. We're a young economy and trying to introduce mature financial instruments based on a script is a mistake, it will promote hoarding of money instead of spending it since the choice is income guaranteed by script vs running an actual enterprise or buying into one. Transferring: I believe I did put it in the financial update, but if not - 100% support, signature with both hands.
  25. I disagree with an auction concept. I'd much prefer to see a waiting list OR a lottery system where people put down an advance to get on the list.
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