NationStates Jolt Archive

1) The National Budget is a much greater percentage of the GDP than the tax rate I'm told Tirocinium charges its citizens. Is this an error, or are there sources of income the government has that I don't know about?

2) Much more important (to me): at http://www.pipian.com/stuffforchat/gdpcalc.php, if you type in just that much, it gives directions for use -- certain additions to the URL. One mentioned is:

>&popspec=(the difference of your "population" from
>Nationstates) - For those countries who like to >specify exact populations

However, I can't figure out how to use this feature. Following the equal sign with a number doesn't change the pop: bare number, number preceded by a "+", number preceded by a "-", nor even a number as a multiplier.

Does anyone know how to get this feature to work? I admit, I could just grab my own calculator and do the multiplication myself, but I'd like to know how to get the GDPcalc to work.

Any help will be appreciated.

I don't think anyone has figured out how to use the "extra" features yet :)

I don't think anyone has figured out how to use the "extra" features yet :)

Nope, wrong. The &randomize, &defenseprovided, &defense, and &militarybudget features are explained and work just fine. Only the &popspec feature seems to not work. :?

*Bump*

Hoping someone will notice this thread and answer my questions. :)

I tried this out a little and I noticed something... The popspec feature only seems to work when used in combination with the randomize feature.

For example,
http://www.pipian.com/stuffforchat/gdpcalc.php?nation=Naleth&&popspec=10&randomize=1
adds ten to my population and randomizes other areas slightly, but
http://www.pipian.com/stuffforchat/gdpcalc.php?nation=Naleth&&popspec=10
does not change my population by ten.

OK. I'm the creator (my other nation is Mac Anu), so I'll try to answer your questions.

First off, no positive sign is needed. I may need to check something to make sure the pop spec is working properly though.

As for percentage of the budget, it does not hinge on the tax rate at all. Obviously if it's greater than the tax rate, you're doing some deficit spending ^^

Alright. I got that fixed faster than I thought I would. It should work now.

Budget depends on your civil rights for some strange reason.

Yes. The reason I made it based on that is for two reasons:

First, tax rate seems to have little affect on the size of the budget relative to the economy. Deficit spending and borrowing is quite possible. Compare the US with its medium tax rate and huge budget versus places in Europe with larger tax rates but not necessarily proportionally larger budgets compared to their economies.
Secondly, though there is no DIRECT relationship between civil rights and a budget, there is a small correlation between countries with more civil rights and larger budgets and vice versa. Compare the relatively liberal countries of the US, and Europe to dictatorships holding absolute power in South America and especially Africa.
Thirdly (a corrollary to the previous), budgets for countries are PRIMARILY for the people themselves. If there isn't much reason to uphold rights for people (which often requires money), then there isn't as much money spent. If there are MORE civil rights (i.e. unemployment, social security, etc.) there are of course larger budgets per person.

Yes. The reason I made it {the GDPCalc} based on that {Civil Rights} is for two reasons:

First, tax rate seems to have little affect on the size of the budget relative to the economy. Deficit spending and borrowing is quite possible. Compare the US with its medium tax rate and huge budget versus places in Europe with larger tax rates but not necessarily proportionally larger budgets compared to their economies.
Secondly, though there is no DIRECT relationship between civil rights and a budget, there is a small correlation between countries with more civil rights and larger budgets and vice versa. Compare the relatively liberal countries of the US, and Europe to dictatorships holding absolute power in South America and especially Africa.
Thirdly (a corrollary to the previous), budgets for countries are PRIMARILY for the people themselves. If there isn't much reason to uphold rights for people (which often requires money), then there isn't as much money spent. If there are MORE civil rights (i.e. unemployment, social security, etc.) there are of course larger budgets per person.

So, you decided to enforce deficit spending? Or is this something that is, in fact, actually in the game software?

Unemployment payments, social security, etc. are not civil rights, they are priviledges. Civil rights are things like the vote, due process, etc. It is more expensive to keep a population oppressed than to acknowledge their inherent rights.

Where are you getting the per-person income/GDP money figure from? Is that inherent in the game, or your own figure?


Please excuse any sharpness of tone---I'm in a rush. :)

^^ It's alright.

Deficit Spending is just what I'm going to call it when your Tax Rate doesn't match your budget. I mean, I suppose I could make it balance out, but then there would be no deficit spending at all.

And you are right that they are privileges, but in general, I am lumping them in, assuming that the level of civil rights plays a large role in how many of these privileges exist. It's really hard to judge, I admit, but there is a correlation that I did my best to emulate.

As for per-person-GDP and per-person-Budget, those are based on arbitrarily assigned factors by myself based on my own observations of the real-world economic figures of countries. An old thread on the gDP calculator explains what they are and how it works.

Thanks for fixing the &popspec feature! :D