Governmental Income and Production

[Dida]

In current Civ games, our government gain income by having our citizens work on a particular tile of land that generates some food, shield or gold. This system is so far okay and simple to handle.
However, it has serious shortcomings. As we know, while food production is directly related to land, because we need to grow crops or raise domestic animals for food on farmlands, other incomes like money and industrial production is not directly related to land.
By tying all three of them to a tile of land, it produces the snow-ball effect. As the civ gets more land, it becomes more powerful in all way (more food, more population, more gold, more shield, more tech), thus enabling it to wave wars to acquire even more land. All in all, I think the game put too much emphasis on quantity and not quality.

I think the government should gain income not by directly working a tile of land (unless it has 'gold' as bonus resource), instead, government should make money on taxations or state-owned enterprise. The player can raise or lower taxes, the amount of tax received will be based on the following factors:
-population size
-wealth of population (wealthier pops pay more tax)
-amount of business/industrial activities
-import duties
As the civ becomes more developed, the amount of business activies increases, and people becomes wealthier, generating more income.
Another way to make money is directly get involved in business. The government establish things like chinaware studios that makes china-dishes, and sell them abroad or domestically.(has to pay salary to workers), or automobile factories that make car and sell them around the world. You should even be able to establish business in another civ. This way, one civ can control another economically, reducing the need to wage war.

Military units and city improvements should not be build by using shield directly obtain from land. Instead, they should be built in those government-owned or private businesses. For example automobile factories can build cars, but in war time, it can switch to build tanks.

This way, it is possible for a tiny country to be much more powerful than a huge country, if the small country is more advanced and developed.

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

Well, Dida, I agree with you RIGHT up to the last point. I think that a city's 'Wealth' should be based on its Size, its Demography (and, therefore, its peoples average wage) and the presence-and type-of special resources it possesses. It is also increased according to the degree of 'Capitalism' in your society. This 'Wealth' is then used to calculate the City's per turn income-based on the number of raw/manufactured goods it produces (shields, food and even 'beakers'). This income is boosted by the presence of commercial improvements in the city, and the level of 'Materialism' of your nation. Roads, Railways and Rivers would boost either a city's wealth or its income, but I am not sure which!!
So, how does money get into your national treasury? First by income tax, which generates income for your nation based on the demographics and 'average wages' of your society. Next comes 'tithing' of cities, this brings a % of the cities per turn income into the national treasury-how much you can tithe cities, effectively, increases throughout the ages. Lastly, you have company taxes, which generate income based on the amount of 'Capitalism' in your society. It might also be possible to have a 'Wealth Tax' and a VAT as well, but that isn't essential IMHO.
Another thing is that Raw shields are worth less than 'proccessed shields', and shields which go into building improvements and units do not earn the city any income at all. I think this would be a good way to move the income produced AWAY from the working of individual tiles, and make it more based on the NATURE of the city and what it produces.

Yours,
Aussie_Lurker.

 

[Dida]

Aussie_Lurker, thanks for the input. I agree with your point.