NationStates Jolt Archive

Title: Out of Cash!

Validity: Valid for nations that have non-100% tax rate (maybe lower?)

Description: An upward trend in the number of citizens and corporations running into bankruptcy has led to calls for the government to take action.

[option]"Please help me!" sobs bankrupt @@MAJORINDUSTRY@@ laborer and rabid consumer @@RANDOMNAME@@. "I promise I'll never do it again, just clear all my debts! And don't make it hard for me to get a loan later, it may hurt banks, but why worry about all those filthy-rich shareholders when you can worry about me? Please?"
[effect]banks hire private investigators to search for past private bankruptcies
[stats]economy crashes, civil rights up a little, happiness up

[option]"Lock 'em all up!" roars @@NAME@@topolis Police Chief @@RANDOMNAME@@. "We can't just let them off the hook like this, we need to dish out some real punishments. Like, say, sticking them in prison until they can pay? Never mind that they can't earn any money in prison; that just adds to the deterrent."
[effect]impoverished debtors are overcrowding prisons
[stats]civil rights down a bit, happiness down, law enforcement budget up

[option]"That still doesn't get us our money back," reasons @@RANDOMNAME@@, CEO, Chairman and principle stockholder of @@NAME@@ @@MAJORINDUSTRY@@ Solutions. "What if we just had them work for us nights and weekends until they'd worked enough to pay the debts? We'd only pay them around 2 @@CURRENCY@@s an hour, but what's that compared to all the time and effort we'd have to spend tracking them down?"
[effect]overdrawn work 24/7 for years at a time to pay off their debts
[stats]happiness down, economy up, civil rights down

Thoughts? I'm wondering if the options are too extreme, or not realistic, or if I need more, etc...

Nice, but I think it already exists.

Really? I searched the issue list for "bankruptcy", "cash", and "corporation", but I didn't see anything.

I am certain that I received an issue that involved filing for bankruptcy. I remember, because there was an option to put people in workhouses, and I selected that option.

Found it Ceo.

#187: @@NAME@@'s Underclass Drowning in Debt [Crazahkistan; ed:Myrth]

The Issue
In response to an increasing number of people falling into debt and declaring bankruptcy, activists are arguing that the government should take a stronger role in protecting its citizens from loosely regulated lending firms and in helping its citizens pay off or cancel their debts.

The Debate
1. @@RANDOMNAME@@, head of consumer watchdog 'Debt-Busters' urges the government to enact new laws. "We've got middle and lower class families falling victim to predatory financial institutions and plunging into debts they can never hope to repay. The government must pass legislation restricting things like interest rates to stem the tide of people losing their property to these sharks, and take an active role reviewing all loan repayment terms."

2. "That's just not going far enough!" cries newspaper columnist, @@RANDOMNAME@@. "The government must eliminate the shackles of debt from our good nation once and for all! What we need are vast reforms of the welfare system then we can provide these poor, downtrodden souls with money and housing, so they don't need to take out such huge loans in the first place!

3. "They're irresponsible with their money and yet they're the victims? Call me crazy but borrowing money and not paying it back isn't debt, it's theft!" scoffs @@RANDOMNAME@@, representitive of one of @@NAME@@'s largest lending firms. "What we really need is the power to send these parasites to debtor prisons, where they can work off the money they owe through hard manual labour."

Gah! Didn't think of searching for "debt". Never mind then.