Hey, my plan has a whole pile of abstraction in there!...I wonder at what point we left the "perhaps there should be a measure of abstraction of the finer details"-train of thought.
[X] TalonofAnathrax
...I wonder at what point we left the "perhaps there should be a measure of abstraction of the finer details"-train of thought.
Hey, I'm not saying it's bad-
To be honest from an ideological point of view I sort of hate my plan (it's far too tolerant of D&D-style extreme wealth inequality! IRL I would be unhappy!) but in practice it fixes our in-setting issues, it reduces taxes on the poor and removes old feudal taxation that disincentivized trade and technological progress, and it's IC for Viserys.
Which is why I'm voting for it.
It's also so close to Goldfish's plan that there's a good chance he'll just vote for me and call it a day
...I wonder at what point we left the "perhaps there should be a measure of abstraction of the finer details"-train of thought.
[X] TalonofAnathrax
Fighting taxes is just another battle, albeit one without end.[X] TalonofAnathrax
*headache*
Ugh, all of these terms and numbers are making me dizzy. Damnit, why are y'all so good at this... this... govermential... thing.
I feel wholly inadequate right now. The only thing I'm good at is making fight scenes. And here y'all are, making tax rearrangements at a night's turn!
Not really, I asked "how would it crush our economy again?", and continued with "is this about Hardened equipment not breaking again?".@egoo, you asked how we could help with the "magitech crushing the old economy" issue.
...You should try writing an epic about Eldritch Taxes trying to consume all there is?
Would have no good ending, but eh, few epics do.
In the current economy, there are many unskilled jobs doing tasks that can be economically automated by magic. Why pay for a whole mining town when you could rent Titan's Tools? Why make stuff when you can Harden it and have it last forever? Why have forges when you can replicate Lya's setup? Etc.Not really, I asked "how would it crush our economy again?", and continued with "is this about Hardened equipment not breaking again?".
I'm lacking the context, because I don't get how you see what destroying what.
I think the biggest thing we can do to help people adjust to the shifting economy is offering a LOT of free training in new jobs, making it and the information about what skills lead to what jobs and what pay easily accessible (something like this would be a very useful MirrorVision program), give people favorable loans for starting businesses in new industries (Iron Bank will definitely help with this, they love a booming economy) kind of like those microloan programs IRL, etc.In the current economy, there are many unskilled jobs doing tasks that can be economically automated by magic. Why pay for a whole mining town when you could rent Titan's Tools? Why make stuff when you can Harden it and have it last forever? Why have forges when you can replicate Lya's setup? Etc.
Furthermore, this magitech is all very good for business owners who can afford to make the initial investment. So big conglomerates (ex: Lys) will be able to go magitech and suddenly produce a ton of goods that they can sell for cheap, thereby removing the competition from the market. Big lawyer firms can buy magic items of VoTD and suddenly all their employees have +10 to everything, letting them crush smaller firms who can't afford the magic item. So this is industrialisation with a helping of extra monopolies unless we act to prevent that
Gotta make sure your investments have at least 11% yearly return, then. Difficult but not impossible. Or spend it on services, give it to your kids, etc.@TalonofAnathrax, I don't have much problem with the new version of your plan, except for the 10% property tax on the very richest. That's blatantly excessive and might as well be called the Dragon Rebellion Tax. It's one thing to tax their legitimate income, but if you try to take 10% of a Dragon's hoard on an annual basis, to quote @Abhishek M, you're going to end up with a dead Dragon, and it might not be the Dragon you want dead. You'll also end up with dead Tax Collectors, government officials, etc.
Even 5% is high, but I can settle for that if necessary.
No, let's not introduce our first tax loophole before the laws are even in place. You're making too many assumptions and projecting some of your Frenchness onto this issue. Not all Dragons are going to want to heavily invest in earning treasure the non-traditional way (non-traditional based on what their eons old instincts and the Dragon Dream tell them). They also don't have a habit of turning their vast accumulated wealth toward controlling large extraplanar empires like we fear happening with quasi-immortal Humans. They just like to look at it, catalog it, and sleep on it.Gotta make sure your investments have at least 11% yearly return, then. Difficult but not impossible. Or spend it on services, give it to your kids, etc.
Although you are indeed correct that these solutions don't work on Dragons who are unwilling to invest parts of their hoards... There is currently no Dragon in the Empire with a hoard anywhere near that big, though. Still a long-term issue. :/
This is a problem because the whole point of the law is to cap the wealth concentration of immortals, you see.
What if there was had a "hoard exemption" or "heirloom exemption"? Wealth that isn't invested, isn't generating revenue, isn't used to generate revenue, isn't being used and isn't planned to be sold can be non-taxable once you have a certain amount of it? It's a massive loophole, but it would neatly resolve the Dragon problem.
This would also incentivize people to craft magic items (because as long as you aren't using them they could count as a hoard), which is nice on a structural level.
And maybe the hoard exemption could only apply to things that need to hoard wealth, like Dragons.
I like that idea.What if there was had a "hoard exemption" or "heirloom exemption"? Wealth that isn't invested, isn't generating revenue, isn't used to generate revenue, isn't being used and isn't planned to be sold can be non-taxable once you have a certain amount of it? It's a massive loophole, but it would neatly resolve the Dragon problem.
This would also incentivize people to craft magic items (because as long as you aren't using them they could count as a hoard), which is nice on a structural level.
And maybe the hoard exemption could only apply to things that need to hoard wealth, like Dragons.