Policies panel
In the policies panel you can find information about policies and their current values.
You can also modify these values to achieve desired policy goals.
To see a sample game screen with the policies panel open, click
here.
The table lists all available policies and gives information about their current and new values.
At the start of every turn the “new value” will always be the same as the “current value”.
However after modifying a policy, its “new value” will change and the “current value”
will remain as it was. In order to modify a policy click the “editor button”
.
There are five policies available in “The economy, stupid!”.
Each policy has a single parameter that can be modified by the player in order to modify the policy.
For example, the parameter of the income tax policy is the rate of income tax.
Each policy has either a cost or brings a revenue to the budget.
Budget deficit for a single turn is calculated by adding the revenues from all policies and subtracting all costs.
The policies are listed below.
Income tax
A tax levied on the financial income of persons, corporations, or other legal entities.
[1]
The income taxation system, in the game, is purely proportional - everyone pays the same tax rate,
without exceptions. The income tax will most likely be the main source of revenues in your budget.
Increasing the tax rate will cause higher revenues, at least in the short run.
However, higher tax rate may also slow down the economy and so in the longer run, the revenues may fall.
VAT
Value added tax, or goods and services tax (GST), is a tax on exchanges.
It is levied on the added value that results from each exchange.
[2]
In the game, this tax, besides being a significant source of income is important because
of its effect on prices. Increasing VAT can cause higher rate of inflation, while reducing the tax
may limit inflation. Just like in the case of the income tax, VAT has also an effect on the growth
of the economy. If you increase the tax, the growth will slow down.
Unemployment benefits
Payments made by the government to unemployed people.
In the game you set the value of the benefit received by a single unemployed person every month.
The value is nominal, i.e is not corrected for inflation.
Retirement benefits
Payments made by the government to retired people.
In the game you set the value of the benefit received by a single retired person every month.
The value is nominal, i.e is not corrected for inflation.
Public sector funding
The amount of money spent by the government every month
on the public sector. In TES, the public sector is treated as a single entity, i.e. it is not divided into
components like healthcare, law enforcement, the military, or education. It is assumed, that by increasing