Sensible Erection | Budget Hero

Saturday, 10 September 2011

quote [ Budget Hero seeks to provide a values- and fiscal-based lens for citizens to examine policy debates during this election year. ]

A little outdated (2009), but still very interesting.

Tried to match events that had already occurred. Got the debt from 75.5 to 63.6% of GDP in 10 years. Government size from 25.9 to 22.6% of GDP. Still crashed the economy by 2035.

[politics] [by schatten00777@9:46pmGMT] [+2]

Comments

afrasr said @ 10:28pm GMT on 10th Sep
Yup... even if I cut the guts out of everything.... US still crashes around 2040.

sacrelicious said @ 1:00am GMT on 11th Sep
if only there were some way to generate more tax revenue by somehow altering the rates at which people at different income levels are taxed.

ahh, don't listen to me and my wacky-doodles science fiction ideas that would never work...

happiest_sadist said @ 3:22am GMT on 11th Sep
There are a few half-assed options for that sort of thing in the game, but nothing like what I would find worthwhile.

Probably because the options offered were restricted to things contemplated by Congress in 2009? I'm not sure, but it seems that all the various options were things that CBO had vetted.

sacrelicious said @ 3:32am GMT on 11th Sep
which basically tells us that no one is willing to consider the things that will fix this.

sacrelicious said @ 1:08am GMT on 11th Sep
I clicked on the IOU building and I got a nice explaination of how there are no cards for that building, and no way to click "done" or "okay" on that text, thus effectively crashing the game.

happiest_sadist said @ 3:24am GMT on 11th Sep
IIRC there was a little "X" in the upper right corner of the text box when I did that. I also noticed that some of the elements overrun the right-hand edge of the container, so maybe you couldn't see it for that reason if it was there.

Yuck, I hate Flash.

sacrelicious said @ 1:19am GMT on 11th Sep [Score:1 Insightful]
one thing this does not seem to factor in is the potential economic gains from programs. like if funding a program were to open up an industry that created the next economic boom, that would solve the budget crisis right quick.

that sort of thing would be difficult to calculate, sure, but without it it's kind of like a sports sim where the possibility of winning isn't even considered.

EPT said @ 9:20am GMT on 11th Sep
Given the scale of the numbers involved, it sounds like you're describing a lottery sim, not a sports sim.

happiest_sadist said @ 2:06am GMT on 11th Sep
Budget down from 75.5% GDP in 2012 to 44.5% in 2021.
"Budget bust" delayed until 2040.
Size of government reduced to 21.6% from 25.9%.

Played through a few more times after that. As afrasr says it looks like there's no way to prevent this "Budget bust" (even if you are showing a large surplus in 2031) although I managed to push it back to 2044.

This is not a very good game, I think.

schatten00777 said @ 4:25am GMT on 11th Sep
From reading the comments, I see that there's some misunderstanding. I think the point is that with the options presented, it is impossible to prevent the budget from collapsing. The best that can be done is to delay it. We need new ideas, but they aren't being considered by Congress.

sacrelicious said @ 4:43am GMT on 11th Sep
the republicans are ensuring that raising revenue is off the table, and until that changes there will be no workable options because that part is essential.

incpenners said @ 7:01am GMT on 11th Sep [Score:-1 Overrated]
The government has enough god damn money.

sacrelicious said @ 7:10am GMT on 11th Sep
well shit, what's all this fussin' an' fightin' about then? guess now we all feel pretty silly, huh?

blibblob said @ 7:38am GMT on 11th Sep
We sure used to. But I think Vietnam happened since then, I could be wrong.

DarkShadowRavenDragonGrrl69 said @ 6:47am GMT on 11th Sep
For anyone interested, there's a game called Fate of the World that does a similar thing on a worldwide scale, with different scenarios. Also it's much better and much more challenging, totally worth the 10 bucks it costs.

EPT said @ 9:21am GMT on 11th Sep
More challenging = poorly documented and hard to see what effects your cards will have. I found it very frustrating.

DarkShadowRavenDragonGrrl69 said @ 2:34pm GMT on 11th Sep
http://fateoftheworld.wikia.com/wiki/Fate_of_the_World_Wiki

Jack Blue said @ 9:14am GMT on 11th Sep
I just funded NASA like hell and hoped that when everything crashed, at least there was other planets to go to.

f00m@nB@r said @ 5:36pm GMT on 11th Sep [Score:1 Underrated]

eskimonoise said @ 7:28pm GMT on 11th Sep
Can't remember where I found this but it seemed kinda appropriate

It is a slow day in the small Dakota town of Pumphandle and streets are deserted. Times are tough, everybody is in debt and living on credit. A tourist visiting the area drives through town, stops at the motel, and lays a $100 bill on the desk saying he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs to pick one for the night.

As soon as he walks upstairs, the motel owner grabs the bill and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher.

The butcher takes the $100 and runs down the street to retire his debt to the pig farmer.

The pig farmer takes the $100 and heads off to pay his bill to his supplier, the Co-op.

The guy at the Co-op takes the $100 and runs to pay his debt to the local prostitute, who has also been facing hard times and has had to offer her “services” on credit.

The hooker rushes to the hotel and pays off her room bill with the hotel owner. The hotel proprietor then places the $100 back on the counter so the traveler will not suspect anything.

At that moment the traveler comes down the stairs, states that the rooms are not satisfactory, picks up the $100 bill and leaves. No one produced anything. No one earned anything… However, the whole town is now out of debt and looks to the future with a lot more optimism.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how a “stimulus package works.

oranges said @ 5:08am GMT on 12th Sep
This example was brought up and discussed here.

klingon_fodder said @ 6:49am GMT on 12th Sep
i searched there for pumphandle but didn't find it

klingon_fodder said @ 6:46am GMT on 12th Sep
Apocalyptic GOP Is Dragging Us Into a Civil War - Matt Taibbi

"...a Republican camp that increasingly acts not like a traditional peacetime political organization, but more like an apocalyptic cult or one of the authoritarian movements from early 20th century European history."

they fucking ARE nazis, and they want you dead