Getting a Handle on Our Currency
•
by Sophia Forrester
In the last few weeks, the value of the JPY has slid significantly, from its long-held value of about .014 Gold to a new low of .007 Gold. To some extent, this is because of uncertainty around the new economic system. All countries' currency has slid; eJapan is no exception. However, the Imperial Diet has been looking for ways to limit the supply of currency, and thereby keep a glut of JPY from overwhelming the market.
One way is by raising taxes. Under the old system, money market operations were lucrative enough that they, not taxes, formed most of the national revenue. This is no longer the case. Therefore, continuing the same policies, even with a tighter eye on spending, has contributed to the decline of the JPY.
Yesterday, a proposal was made to raise taxes on food to unheard-of levels. A sales tax of 23% would have been instituted and an import tax of 25% in addition to that. I voted against this proposal.
However, to safeguard the value of the JPY, and to make sure that we are able to fund our military and other government departments, I have proposed a more moderate change, raising the sales tax on food from 7% to 12%. Several members of the Diet have said that this does not go far enough. Personally, I would rather change a little bit at a time than go too fast and run into trouble.
Weapons taxes are now unchanged, but since weapons are a smaller part of our economy, food seems the place to start. If the raised taxes on food have the intended effect, we might raise weapons as well.
I encourage all citizens to join the ongoing debate in the Imperial Diet, beginning here: http://www.nipponblog.net/showthread.php?t=3024&page=7
Facebook
Twitter
Discord
Comments
Ahhhhh. I love these times. Chaos, Social Unrest, Revolution, the rise of the youth against their elders. I see nothing wrong with the current situation.
Also, I love the smell of inflation in the morning.
Hopefully, the taxes would be enough. Realistically they won't be. Don't get me wrong, I agree. We should raise food taxes (and weapons taxes). However, I feel that we must do even more extreme measures. After all, this isn't a small inflation. This is depression-level chaos.
In short, I agree with your peers. Now is a time for desperate measures. We need out-of-the-box thinking and crazy scientists. You know Emmett Brown, right Sophia?
I think crazy isn't hard to find, but are they scientists?
Hitoshi-san, I don't know him personally. I've met several scientists, but not Doc Brown. I remember him from Star Trek III: The Search for Spock though.
Squibeel, it more or less depends on where you draw the line for a "scientist." For example, on an afternoon talk show an "expert" is anyone who is willing to pretend (justified or not) to be smarter than everyone else. I imagine that if we had scientists here it would probably be along the same lines.
Umm, Sophia...
Emmett Brown was the scientist from Back to the Future...
Sophia, an expert is just in an out-of-towner with a briefcase. Anyway, I think we need a better system for proposing laws. We need to be able to figure out a coherent tax scheme before we vote on it. Debating things like impeachment beforehand goes hand in hand with this.
Umm good.
I got to say Sophia. i was expecting more humor in this article :/
~Friedrice
What if we implemented 99% taxes, but the government gave every citizen the food they needed to live /in times of war all the citizens got weapons to fight.
Better just mass message admin to fix the system. The core reason why this is happening is the game lacked gold, and the admin mass printing of currency didnt help the situation.
[removed]
I think rising taxes is a good idea, but it's not enough. I can't see that section in the forum (yet), but I think the Imperial Diet must think a long or medium term plan to rise taxes a little bit a time, but several times consecutively, like twice a month for three months or so.
There are larger changes now under discussion.
Thanks for everyone's comments!
Why can't I see any of the forum threads?
If you are having trouble seeing forum threads, you may need to register your Japanese citizenship here: http://nipponblog.net/showthread.php?t=1
If you have already registered for the boards and registered your citizenship as well, you may need to log in again. Put in your username and password at the top right of the forum webpage.