If you were in power...

Started by Rogue planet October 15th, 2010 8:28 AM
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  • 15 replies
Age 29
Seen November 5th, 2017
Posted November 5th, 2017
3,499 posts
14.9 Years
You're in charge of a small island which is currently going through an economic crisis. Your advisors have given you 10 options which you must choose from. Your job is to prioritise these options. The option you put first on the list will be the first to come in effect, the second will come into effect one month later, with each new month a new law will come into place depending on the order you prioritised them in, until the economic crisis is over.

You must place these 10 options into order, the first choice being the action you would take first (aka the option you believe is the most reasonable) and the final choice being the last resort action (aka the option you disagree with the most).

These are your options:
A) Close down 5% of the hospital facilities on the island.
B) Prevent people from using any vehicle, for any reason other than transport to work/school.
C) Ban the consumption of alcohol.
D) Suspend the practice of building memorials to the dead.
E) Cut the budget of schools by 5%.
F) Prohibit families from travelling to see each other during national holidays.
G) Kill all pets on the island.
H) Ban all cosmetic products, jewellery and any form of "luxury clothing", aka only the cheapest and most basic clothes are left available.
I) Increase taxes by 5%.
J) Reduce the wages payed to women by 5%.

Just a recent activity in one of my classes, thought it would be interesting to see other people's choices. If anyone replies.

Nick

Seen 4 Weeks Ago
Posted July 28th, 2021
17,572 posts
18.6 Years
C) Ban the consumption of alcohol.
H) Ban all cosmetic products, jewellery and any form of "luxury clothing", aka only the cheapest and most basic clothes are left available.
I) Increase taxes by 5%.
B) Prevent people from using any vehicle, for any reason other than transport to work/school.
E) Cut the budget of schools by 5%.
A) Close down 5% of the hospital facilities on the island.
J) Reduce the wages payed to women by 5%.
D) Suspend the practice of building memorials to the dead.
F) Prohibit families from travelling to see each other during national holidays.
G) Kill all pets on the island

Esper

California
Seen June 30th, 2018
Posted June 30th, 2018
D) Suspend the practice of building memorials to the dead.

I don't see how something like this would greatly improve the economy, but it's an option and an easy one since nobody looses out on anything.

C) Ban the consumption of alcohol.

What good does alcohol do anyway?

H) Ban all cosmetic products, jewellery and any form of "luxury clothing", aka only the cheapest and most basic clothes are left available.

I) Increase taxes by 5%.

B) Prevent people from using any vehicle, for any reason other than transport to work/school.

It's a small island. They can walk to the store.

F) Prohibit families from travelling to see each other during national holidays.

They can visit each other on regular weekends.

G) Kill all pets on the island.

E) Cut the budget of schools by 5%.

Schools are important. Doing this would be a short term fix with long term consequences.

A) Close down 5% of the hospital facilities on the island.

Hospitals are important. Same idea as why cutting school budgets is a bad idea.

J) Reduce the wages payed to women by 5%.

Just a stupid idea.

Age 28
Seen April 7th, 2014
Posted April 2nd, 2014
3,977 posts
15.8 Years


C) Ban the consumption of alcohol.
D) Suspend the practice of building memorials to the dead.
B) Prevent people from using any vehicle, for any reason other than transport to work/school.
H) Ban all cosmetic products, jewellery and any form of "luxury clothing", aka only the cheapest and most basic clothes are left available.
F) Prohibit families from travelling to see each other during national holidays.
I) Increase taxes by 5%.
E) Cut the budget of schools by 5%.
G) Kill all pets on the island.
A) Close down 5% of the hospital facilities on the island.
J) Reduce the wages payed to women by 5%.

Ivysaur

Grass dinosaur extraordinaire

Age 32
He/him
Madrid, Europe
Seen 1 Day Ago
Posted April 5th, 2023
21,076 posts
16.2 Years
I) Increase taxes by 5%.

If people can still get all the services by just paying something more, why not? Of course, I'd try to balance them- people who earn more and own more goods would pay more.

D) Suspend the practice of building memorials to the dead.

It would cause a bigger discomfort but it's the only service that is absolutely unecessary for the well being of the alive citizens.

And now is when things get absurd so it's really hard for me to choose XD;

B) Prevent people from using any vehicle, for any reason other than transport to work/school.

It would force people to do their shopping in the close areas, which is something anti-economic, but it's the less crazy one of the following options.

F) Prohibit families from travelling to see each other during national holidays.

If it's by car, it's a logical conclusion from the previous one. If it means that they can't even go to see each other by feet, then... it would be the last choice XD It may be a warfare economy, but this is feeling similar to a siege economy.

H) Ban all cosmetic products, jewellery and any form of "luxury clothing", aka only the cheapest and most basic clothes are left available.

Same there, it's getting really close to a warfare economy but hey. I guess the crisis is that bad.

C) Ban the consumption of alcohol.

It's a stupid option, it would actually harm the economy, and alcohol is a really nice product to put special taxes on... but it wouldn't harm the citizens, as opposed to the following options.

E) Cut the budget of schools by 5%.

Woo harming the developement of the following generations. Sounds nice. At least it would actually save money.

A) Close down 5% of the hospital facilities on the island.

Woo putting the lives of the citizens on a greater risk! Sounds nice. At least it would actually save money.

G) Kill all pets on the island.

I'm sorry but I can't even fathom how that would save any money. And it includes actually murdering actual alive beings for some reasons I can't really understand so...

J) Reduce the wages payed to women by 5%.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Article 1
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.
Age 29
Seen November 5th, 2017
Posted November 5th, 2017
3,499 posts
14.9 Years
Just to clarify, the activity wasn't actually aimed to teach about what's good for the economy, the focus was about the differences in people's values and opinions. So there are a few options that may not help the economy, but you could probably replace the hypothetical situation with a different one and still retain the same options. Maybe it's a place similar to a third world country where the economy largely relies on farming and other similar things, rather than the production of goods like our more developed countries.
But you can interpret it in any way you wish, just that is why some of the options may seem stupid because they weren't actually created to make people think about the economy.

Anyway, here are my choices:
1. Increase taxes by 5%.
Like Went, I would increase the tax further for those who are richer. It's the most sane option there I thought.

2. Ban all cosmetic products, jewellery and any form of "luxury clothing", aka only the cheapest and most basic clothes are left available.
People survived without them in the past, I doubt this would cause much unhappiness.

3. Suspend the practice of building memorials for the dead.
Cremation will do fine, it's the living that need more attention.

4. Ban the consumption of alcohol.
A tough choice seeing as it would probably make a lot of people annoyed, but after this it starts getting a bit crazier so I had to put it here.

5. Prevent people from using any vehicle, for any reason other than transport to work/school.
They can walk. People didn't have cars in the early 20th century so I'm sure they could survive without them again.

6. Prohibit families from travelling to see each other during national holidays.
Well they can visit each other any other time. This one was a strange option... They can just live closer to each other and then see each other as often as they want.

7. Cut the budget to schools by 5%.
It's only 5%, as long as they have a teacher and books then they can survive. I think modern schools receive too much funding anyway, there's too much focus on learning via computers these days and I really see no problem in just learning by traditional methods.

8. Close down 5% of the hospital facilities.
There's still 95% right? Maybe they will just have to queue sometimes. If there is less transport use, less road accidents, so we don't need as many hospitals.

9. Reduce the wages payed to women by 5%.
I'm sure a lot of people would rather lose 5% pay than have their pet killed. People can get very attached to pets, which is why I put it last. Otherwise, this would have definitely been last.
I'd personally reduce the pay by 5% for both women and men, but I guess they wanted us to think about ~SEXISM~ when writing this scenario.

10. Kill all pets on the island.
Yeah, that's a stupid one.


Strangely enough, all of the females in my class put the "reduce the wages payed to women by 5%" option quite high on their list. They decided that other things on the list were more important than their equal pay. The males in the class put the option near the end of their list because they had stronger beliefs of an equal society.

Kenshin5

Wanderer

Male
Oklahoma
Seen September 18th, 2013
Posted March 25th, 2013
4,391 posts
14.9 Years
B) Prevent people from using any vehicle, for any reason other than transport to work/school.
If island is small in size I don't see much use for motor vehicles. They can use alternative forms of transportation.

F) Prohibit families from traveling to see each other during national holidays.
Considering it is a small island I am sure they see their families enough as it it. I really don't see how it would effect the economy that much though. If it is a concern then just eliminate the holiday and make them continue to work that day.

I) Increase taxes by 5%.
I know this isn't going to be popular with the general public as a short term solution, but I believe in the long run it would be beneficial to the economic and the taxes on goods also pumps more money into the economic.

A) Close down 5% of the hospital facilities on the island.
As said earlier their is still 95% of facilities still intact so I doubt it will dramatically effect the populous of we take away a small portion of the hospital.


D) Suspend the practice of building memorials to the dead.
This really wouldn't be a priority for me get read of or keep around in my opinion. It is not as though people are building memorials every day, so the elimination of this probably won't effect the general work force too much as it would if I cut other jobs like production of alcohol and luxury items.

G) Kill all pets on the island.
I don't know how much this would actually help the economy sure you don't have provide for them but this has minimal effects on the economy. I personally don't spend a lot of my animal. So it wouldn't do much for anyone if I just killed my dog.

E) Cut the budget of schools by 5%.
This may be a good short term benefit, but schools are important to educating their future adults of the island.

H) Ban all cosmetic products, jewelery and any form of "luxury clothing", aka only the cheapest and most basic clothes are left available.
A lot of this too me lays on if the products are made on the island it's self if that is the case banning these products means a loss in jobs, which means a lot of people are unemployed. Unemployment is not going to help the economy and people buying those produces puts money back into the economy.

C) Ban the consumption of alcohol.
Like the last choice if this product is banned this could potentially effect peoples jobs on the island. If people don't have jobs they can't spend the money to buy products which the purchase of these items such as alcohol pumps money into the economy.

J) Reduce the wages payed to women by 5%.
Being on the wrong side of a women is probably never a good idea. This would create a good deal of unrest in a community that already has enough of it. This would never go over well any where. This has got to be my last option of the selected ones as I believe this one would be the most unfavorable options viewed by the public.

Brian - 0089 1621 6313 - White

D) Suspend the practice of building memorials to the dead.
I don't know how much money is being put into this, but at the moment I'd be a little more focused on the living then the dead.

E) Cut the budget of schools by 5%.
It's ridiculous how much the schools whine for money. It'd be nice to finally see a school not get what they want<333

B) Prevent people from using any vehicle, for any reason other than transport to work/school
Seeing as this is a small island I don't imagine vehicles being a completely necessary part of transportation. In an even more positive light walking and biking couldn't hurt.

I) Increase taxes by 5%
Now that everyone isn't paying so much for other things why not introduce some taxes!

F) Prohibit families from travelling to see each other during national holidays.
I mean holidays only make up a small percentage of days out of the whole year. I suppose that's the only time some families can afford to take some time off and see each other, but for the most part you can see your family members any other time of the year.

C) Ban the consumption of alcohol.
I really only see this causing more problems, but compared to the other things I feel as though it belongs here.

H) Ban all cosmetic products, jewellery and any form of "luxury clothing", aka only the cheapest and most basic clothes are left available.
I put this towards the end since I feel as though buying luxury items would help put money into the economy. When compared to killing pets though it gets bumped up a bit.

A) Close down 5% of the hospital facilities on the island.
Hopefully there are enough other hospitals to manage the rest of the island. I'm hoping.

G) Kill all pets on the island.
People are very passionate about their pets. It won't go over easy.

J) Reduce the wages payed to women by 5%.
I'm guessing this is playing on sexism. Which I'm never a fan of!

Charizard★

Age 28
Female
Seen January 28th, 2019
Posted November 13th, 2018
13,369 posts
13.8 Years
C) Ban the consumption of alcohol.
H) Ban all cosmetic products, jewellery and any form of "luxury clothing", aka only the cheapest and most basic clothes are left available.
B) Prevent people from using any vehicle, for any reason other than transport to work/school.
I) Increase taxes by 5%.
E) Cut the budget of schools by 5%.
A) Close down 5% of the hospital facilities on the island.
D) Suspend the practice of building memorials to the dead.
J) Reduce the wages payed to women by 5%.
F) Prohibit families from travelling to see each other during national holidays.
G) Kill all pets on the island


Elite Overlord LeSabre™

On that 'Non stop road'

Age 97
Shimoda City
Seen 2 Days Ago
Posted January 25th, 2022
9,705 posts
15.5 Years
C) Ban the consumption of alcohol.
D) Suspend the practice of building memorials to the dead.
I) Increase taxes by 5%.
H) Ban all cosmetic products, jewellery and any form of "luxury clothing", aka only the cheapest and most basic clothes are left available.
E) Cut the budget of schools by 5%.
A) Close down 5% of the hospital facilities on the island.
G) Kill all pets on the island.
B) Prevent people from using any vehicle, for any reason other than transport to work/school
F) Prohibit families from travelling to see each other during national holidays.
J) Reduce the wages payed to women by 5%.

Elite Overlord LeSabre™
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PlatinumDude

Nyeh?

Age 29
Male
Canada
Seen July 31st, 2020
Posted May 30th, 2020
12,958 posts
12.7 Years
(numbers in parentheses and bolded are the priority; 1 being the first priority; higher numbers have less priority)
A) Close down 5% of the hospital facilities on the island. (7)
B) Prevent people from using any vehicle, for any reason other than transport to work/school. (6)
C) Ban the consumption of alcohol. (1)
D) Suspend the practice of building memorials to the dead. (8)
E) Cut the budget of schools by 5%. (2)
F) Prohibit families from travelling to see each other during national holidays. (9)
G) Kill all pets on the island. (10)
H) Ban all cosmetic products, jewellery and any form of "luxury clothing", aka only the cheapest and most basic clothes are left available. (3)
I) Increase taxes by 5%. (5)
J) Reduce the wages payed to women by 5%. (4)

Age 24
Male
Conisbrough UK.
Seen January 16th, 2011
Posted December 18th, 2010
338 posts
12.7 Years
H: No need for Cosmetics.
I: Gotta bring in the cash.
C: A tough choice.
C: Gotta drop a bit.
B: If its small they can walk there.
E: There loss.
A: If its small we wont need loads.
F: Tough choice....
D: Unfair but its gotta go somewhere.
G: Well, We all die soon.
J: Sexist so I wouldn't consider.
' A greedy father has thieves for children ' Serbian Proverb.

Rich Boy Rob

"Fezzes are cool." The Doctor

Age 29
Male
Seen March 15th, 2016
Posted August 15th, 2015
1,051 posts
14.9 Years
1) Increase taxes by 5%.
2) Ban the consumption of alcohol.
3) Ban all cosmetic products, jewellery and any form of "luxury clothing", aka only the cheapest and most basic clothes are left available.
4) Prevent people from using any vehicle, for any reason other than transport to work/school.
5) Cut the budget of schools by 5%.
6) Close down 5% of the hospital facilities on the island.
7) Prohibit families from travelling to see each other during national holidays.
8) Reduce the wages payed to women by 5%.
9) Kill all pets on the island.
10) Suspend the practice of building memorials to the dead.
In my pants!

luke

Master of the Elements

Age 33
Male
New York
Seen 57 Minutes Ago
Posted 4 Days Ago
7,796 posts
15.9 Years
1) Suspend the practice of building memorials to the dead.

Funerals are a waste of money. Just bury the person and honor their life through other means.

2) Increase taxes by 5%.

Taxes are a necessary evil and people need to stop complaining about them.

3) Prevent people from using any vehicle, for any reason other than transport to work/school.

Walking is good for you and since the island is small people would be able to move across it quickly.

4) Ban all cosmetic products, jewellery and any form of "luxury clothing", aka only the cheapest and most basic clothes are left available.

Truly stylish people can make their personality shine through with the most basic clothing. Designer labels are lame.

5) Close down 5% of the hospital facilities on the island.

Just make sure the remaining hospitals are in tip top shape and there wouldn't be a problem.

6) Prohibit families from travelling to see each other during national holidays.

This one doesn't make sense to me but I support all the other's remaining less. But I guess you could find other means of communicating/celebrating with them (cards, webcam, etc).

7) Ban the consumption of alcohol.

Only because the other ones are too terrible to support.

8) Reduce the wages paid to women by 5%.

Doesn't say anything about not reducing the wages of males at the same time too. :)

9) Cut the budget of schools by 5%.

The last two are basically tied with each other. The education system not only allows for productive students, but it is also an ideal place to fill the children's heads with propaganda and ensure they obey you as they get older.

10) Kill all pets on the island.

I never support taking a creature's life no matter what the species is or the crime they committed.

I really liked this thread. We definitely should have more of these on here.
The bloody blade

Ho-Oh

used Sacred Fire!

Age 31
Female
QLD, Australia
Seen June 5th, 2022
Posted April 23rd, 2022
35,988 posts
17.5 Years
1. Ban the consumption of alcohol.
2. Prevent people from using any vehicle, for any reason other than transport to work/school.
3. Increase taxes by 5%.
4. Ban all cosmetic products, jewellery and any form of "luxury clothing", aka only the cheapest and most basic clothes are left available.
5. Prohibit families from travelling to see each other during national holidays.
6. Cut the budget of schools by 5%.
7. Close down 5% of the hospital facilities on the island.
8. Reduce the wages payed to women by 5%.
9. Suspend the practice of building memorials to the dead.
10. Kill all pets on the island.

Firstly, I would ban alcohol because it has bad consequences, sure, it can be enjoyable for some but in the long run, not really needed. Preventing people from using vehicles actually promotes healthier living, so the hospitals aren't as needed in the future, I guess. Then after that, increasing the taxes would just get everyone prepared for everything else. Banning the cosmetic products makes sense, because the extra things aren't really needed to survive. Then! The travelling to see each other makes sense to me, because they can see each other any other time of the year, plus considering the economy is so bad, nobody would really want to be "patriotic". As for the last few... it was harder to decide. Although children are the future, there are alternate ways to learn and if necessary, their parents can pull them out of school and teach them without the aid of school; it's not like all books or forms of knowledge are burned. Next, I don't like the idea of cutting the hospital facilities, but decreasing vehicle activity, which will help pollution problems if they're apparently will improve lifestyles and people should only go there for emergencies. Now... reducing the wages of women? Unfair, but considering in the past, not all the wages were equal everywhere for each gender (or is it something else? I know women had less rights so it might be that). Either way, it's better than the final two options I picked. I wouldn't want to stop building memorials for the dead - I like the thought of honouring those who have died, especially war heroes, which fought for your lives, and really... everyone deserves to be remembered. Finally killing all pets? Never. Ever. I'm against the thought of killing all pets because they're just as valuable as humans (in a way), so no. Thus, I don't care if it has to be done, I'd rather die than let all the pets be killed, so no, this option is not going ahead.
Seen January 4th, 2013
Posted October 21st, 2011
1,804 posts
13.8 Years
disregarding which options could be turned around to balance the economy and whatever because the op wants answers according to what we value.

I) Increase taxes by 5%. - seems like an obvious priority
D) Suspend the practice of building memorials to the dead. - whatever they're dead. but i would probably encourage ceremonies- certainly not extravagant ones, but some way for people to show each other respect and moral support. it would help the community stay united, i think, and that's what's important.
E) Cut the budget of schools by 5%. - a big percentage of schools' budget usually goes toward trivial things like the department of competitive sports or machines that convenience the staff, things i don't see essential to educating students which is the purpose of school.
F) Prohibit families from traveling to see each other during national holidays.
B) Prevent people from using any vehicle, for any reason other than transport to work/school. - hey, it's environmentally friendly :o) on a small island it doesn't seem so necessary to use individual transportation. first i would limit transportation to public only (buses, maybe taxis), but if the situation got deeper i'd ban it all together.
H) Ban all cosmetic products, jewellery and any form of "luxury clothing", aka only the cheapest and most basic clothes are left available. - i rather value the luxuries that keep my citizens content in a dire situation over what's really essential for survival...that is, unless the situation intensifies to the point where survival is all that's left to pursue.
A) Close down 5% of the hospital facilities on the island. - im not sure further endangering citizens is the best idea, but i'd consider this if push came to shove
C) Ban the consumption of alcohol. - it's not so easy to just ban something people see as a stress-reliever in a time of crisis. you want to make the situation as easy for the people as you possibly can, and i don't see banning alcohol as productive means of doing so.
J) Reduce the wages payed to women by 5%. - now that's just silly
G) Kill all pets on the island. - what worse way to reduce the stress of losing money than killing off people's companions, just absolutely not