Inflation help

[mystikmind2005]

If you are talking about real life, then you are wrong. Inflation is a huge disincentive to saving and investment (and hence long term growth). In the end even the most confiscatory government is limited in how much they can take from their citizens by how much there is. With high inflation over time there will be less.

No, i am not wrong. What you are talking about, inflation is not a cause of economic disfunction, it is meerely a symtom of it.

On the flip side of devestating inflation making things more expensive, you will see the value of that nations currency drop making their exports more cheaper!!

 

[Jolly Rogerer]

No, i am not wrong. What you are talking about, inflation is not a cause of economic disfunction, it is meerely a symtom of it.

On the flip side of devestating inflation making things more expensive, you will see the value of that nations currency drop making their exports more cheaper!!

What does inflation have to do with relative currency valuation? It can "make" one currency more valuable relative to another for the reasons I stated above, but if both currencies have equal levels of inflation the relative effect is nil on valuation. Then you just have inflation (and all the negatives it entails) and your exports are no cheaper / desirable.

Inflation is a negative for an economy, but it can co-exist with other conditions that add up to a net positive. Inflation can be organic rather than a function of loose monetary policy, caused simply by a scarcity of goods rather than a surplus of money hot off the government's press. This often occurs during periods of high growth for instance. This can be tolerable just as a short period of of maintenance eating into your science budget is tolerable in Civ, because prices will eventually normalize as supply increases and demand slackens (in the real world) or (in the Civ world) your cities grow and become more productive. In fact productivity (generally thought of as a good thing) is disinflationary as it makes things cheaper.

 

[Shylock]

I am still playing vanilla - does that have inflation too?

I think inflation is deffinately a very stupid game element. Anyone with the slightest idea of how economics works would know that in the real world, inflation is caused because of increased income from static recources. Where is the increased income happening in the game from static recources? Are gold mines giving you more gold over time? No, so inflation in the game is total bul---t.

Indeed. The currency used in the game is gold, since when do gold coins which I assume haven't been fooled with inflate in value?

Inflation has more to do with people screwing around with the metal content of metal coins (forcing people to use them helps) or more commonly making fiat currency, like the greenbacks you used to buy the game and the Doritos to eat whilst playing it.

In fact productivity (generally thought of as a good thing) is disinflationary as it makes things cheaper.

Not really. According to the Austrian School of Economics inflation is merely the money itself, being a good just like anything else and therefore subject to supply and demand and other forces, becoming worth less than it did before. Higher or lower prices are symptoms of inflation or deflation but are usually tied more into supply and demand.

If high prices were inflation instead of a symptom then why have personal computers gone from 5 to 10 thousands dollars (in 1980s dollars too) to around 5 hundred to a thousand dollars?

 

[mystikmind2005]

Well like i said before, there are allot of smoke and mirror theories and stuff on inflation, you could argue about it all year. We should try to limit our discussion on the aspects that make inflation relevant to civ4 or not.

The other half of inflation that is missing in civ4 is mainly what i am talking about. In civ4 the inflation raises costs but not income. In the real world Inflation inflates the value of things that provide income to the government just as easily as it inflates expenses for the government.

So my point about inflation in civ4 in a nutshell - 'Inflation is not limited to expenses only'!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Therefore there is no logical reason at all to it being in the game. If it is needed for game balance then why not find some more logical way of doing it?

 

[Balderstrom]

@ MystikMind2005
You're right, its not limited to Expenses.

You spend commerce (buying power) on:
Improving your Empire :
Funding the Arts :
Government Intelligence:
Generating Wealth:
Over time:
Cottages inflate and produce more
Trade routes inflate and produce more
The number of Trade routes increase.
Spending on grants access to new technologies that inflate the value/output of improvements.
The Civ gains access to buildings that inflate your buying power in all 4 areas of spending.
The Civ gains access to improvements that inflate the base value of resources.
The Civ gains access to Civics that inflate

And over time inflation increases civic upkeep, city maitenance and unit upkeep.

So you are absolutely correct, inflation covers everything.

 

[mystikmind2005]

Nice try Balderstorm, but that is known as 'value adding'.

Inflation changes the price of a static recource, IE the recource itself has not changed in any way, including its application, technological advancement etc etc

 

[Jolly Rogerer]

Not really. According to the Austrian School of Economics inflation is merely the money itself, being a good just like anything else and therefore subject to supply and demand and other forces, becoming worth less than it did before. Higher or lower prices are symptoms of inflation or deflation but are usually tied more into supply and demand.

If high prices were inflation instead of a symptom then why have personal computers gone from 5 to 10 thousands dollars (in 1980s dollars too) to around 5 hundred to a thousand dollars?

I'm not really sure what you are trying to say here. Computers are cheaper because they are more efficiently produced today than they were in the 1960s (ie my productivity as a disinflationary force comment that you quoted).

I understand that money is a commodity too, but it serves its purpose best when it can maintain its value relative to the value of other things (as a whole) long enough to encourage rather than discourage saving and investment. If inflation is bad enough people will abandon the currency, which obviously negates the very real benefits of having a currency in the first place. Ask Mugabe how the money printing thing is working our for him, Zimbabwe is having trouble coming up with enough foreign exchange to pay for the ink and stock to print their bills.

 

[economiser]

I think it is dumb that the only option to deal with inflation is a random event in BTS. If inflation is coming from minting money, then it ought to be dependent on decisions that the player makes. For instance, you could have the option to "create" gold through minting at a cost of higher inflation.

If you consider that a lot of historical crises included periods of hyperinflation, there might be an interesting way to incorporate inflation.

But I guess the developers felt that it would add too much micromanagement to deal with it and they needed a way to offset late game growth.

 

[viperjo]

I've noticed that if you switch to the state property civic you can eliminate inflation for a period. Sometimes it lasts for a long period while others it does not.