I am currently in great questionment. Last game I played, I tried to see what's the exact efficiency of scientist, heres the result:
In a 12 pop city under Monarchy with a library and a university, that city produced 12 science. It had two taxmens witch I turned to scientists. And the result: 12 science. IDEM!!!

So here's the question again:
What's the point with scientists??

Originally posted by Fier Canadien

So here's the question again:
What's the point with scientists??

I've never found one. I've never used scientists or tax collectors in any version of Civ. In Civ III, where happiness equals points, entertainers are a lot more useful than scientists or tax collectors.

The only time I notice a scientist or taxmen in my cities is in the mid- to late- game. And, since I allow my governor to manage mood in all my cities, I can only believe they use to be unruly citizens. I guess the the governor makes these decisions when cities become too crowded.

I believe taxmen only up your finances by 1 gpt. Scientist, I assume, affect the game similarly.

The effects of scientists and taxmen aren't visible on the city info screen.

You can see the effects on the Domestic advisor screen.

On the top left corner there is a breakdown of your income, it's broken down by income from cities, from other civs, from interest, and from taxmen. Adding a taxman to any city increases your income by 1GPT.

to the right of this is a breakdown of your expenses. Expenses are: to unit costs, to other civs, to corruption, to upkeep, and lastly the exact gpt that you are spending on science. Adding a scientist to any city increases this number by 1GPT, without actually taking it out of your budget. Each scientist produces 1 "free" GPT towards science.

Scientists rarely help you get techs faster, and taxmen are only usefull if you have alot of unit upkeep.

Entertainers, however, ****ing rock. Entertainers not only give you big points, but also help trigger WLTKD, which reduces waste and prevents culture flipping.

Hope this helps :D

All I can add to this last, very informative post is that making a citizen into a scientist in a totally corrupt city has no downside, and should be an automatic move.