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Bill: The Economic Reform Act
Details
Submitted by[?]: Lodamun Liberal-Conservative Party
Status[?]: defeated
Votes: This is an ordinary bill. It requires more yes votes than no votes. This bill will not pass any sooner than the deadline.
Voting deadline: July 2416
Description[?]:
| The Lodamun Liberal-Conservative Party would like to propose a series of reforms to Lodamun's current economic policies: We believe that, currently, the corporation tax is punishing and restrictive - as corporations and big business are easily the largest contributors of our nation's economy, it is important to allow them to flourish under their own merits, without unnessicary government intervention, such as taxation. Such high corporate tax will inevitably mar corporation's productivity, leaving many corporations stagnant and unable to succeed to their full potential. Taxing corporations will discourage their progress, when we should be encouraging it instead. We suggest that, instead of taxing corporations so highly, we cut back on excessive government spending. Article 1 proposes that we reduce the corporation tax to a much fairer 5 percent. Article 2 proposes that any foreign investor may invest freely in our national enterprise - this measure will enrich our economy, as allowing trans-national investors to buy shares in our national enterprise will allow investors to invest who may well be able to offer higher bids than any of our national investors, and may be able to drive the enterprise to higher standards. Any form of multi-national competition will be far more enriching to the company than allowing only national investors. Article 3 simply proposes a reduction of the current minimum wage - we want to allow businesses to determine their wages with more freedom, as they alone can understand what standard wage will be appropriate for them to still maintain a desirable income, and keep up with competition. If employees are not satisfied with their conditions, they can simply quit and seek employment elsewhere, and through the virtues of the market, the offending employer will be forced to increase their standards and conditions or risk losing too many employees. Setting a high minimum wage may also be unfair on businesses who cannot afford to pay their staff so generously, and in this circumstance, these businesses may be eliminated unfairly, where they might not have been if they were allowed to set more competitive wage prices. Furthermore, we believe the market to be much more efficient at regulating wages naturally - if employers are not setting wages high enough to satisfy their employers, theoretically their employees will forfeit their employment with that business, perhaps seeking employment with one of its rivals. Inevitably, this will leave the employer with a choice of either raising his wages to try and attract applicants and to keep them satisfied, or to continue offering staff substandard wages and perhaps end up lacking the adequate staff numbers required for the operations of the business, to be ultimately erradicated by competitive businesses who DO offer their employers generous wages. The market need not be regulated - it is a natural entity, more than capable of ironing out any innefficiencies or unfairness by itself. |
Proposals
Article 1
Proposal[?] to change Tax percentage of the profit made by corporations.
Old value:: 35
Current: 30
Proposed: 5
Article 2
Proposal[?] to change
The government's policy regarding foreign investments.
Old value:: Foreign investors need to obtain government approval for all investments in national companies.
Current: Foreign investors may freely invest in national companies.
Proposed: Foreign investors may invest in national companies, but may not get a majority share.
Article 3
Proposal[?] to change The nation's policy on minimum wage regulation.
Old value:: There shall be a minimum wage at a level considered a "living wage," well above the poverty line for a full time worker.
Current: There shall be a minimum wage at a level considered a "living wage," well above the poverty line for a full time worker.
Proposed: There shall be a minimum wage at a level that a single full time worker on it can adequately subsist.
Debate
These messages have been posted to debate on this bill:
| Date | 13:23:12, June 14, 2007 CET | From | Radical Nationalist Party | To | Debating the The Economic Reform Act |
| Message | We are opposed to all of these proposals, taxing corporations allows us to keep tax down on the workers. |
| Date | 17:15:45, June 14, 2007 CET | From | Lodamun Liberal-Conservative Party | To | Debating the The Economic Reform Act |
| Message | But the main thrust of our arguement is that workers should not be taxed unfairly either. Nobody should. Tax is an unnessicary evil that should be kept to an absolute minimum, perhaps creating funds for militairy, police forces etc, but no innefficient state owned social institutions. Our point is that, over time, we would like to reduce tax to virtually nothing, for everything and everyone; not just corporations, and allow the private sector to occupy the role of funding any form of social instution instead. This piece of legislation regards corporations and enterprise only, yes, but it is part of a much bigger economic reform scheme that the Lodamun Liberal-Conservative Party would like to propose to this electorate, a big picture that will be much brighter, more rewarding and simpler for everyone. This is merely the first step, and we encourage the entire electorate to consider the arguements put forward before dismissing this legislation. |
| Date | 17:43:31, June 14, 2007 CET | From | Lodamun Distributionist Party | To | Debating the The Economic Reform Act |
| Message | The LDP is generally in favor of this proposal. However, we feel that a 30% drop in corporate tax is far too abrupt and would be potentially disruptive to our economy. If the tax was dropped to 20-25%, with the promise of a series of proposals in the future to eventually get the tax to 5%, we would be much more likely to support. |
| Date | 20:44:34, June 14, 2007 CET | From | United Republics Party | To | Debating the The Economic Reform Act |
| Message | I plan a series of tax reforms after my budget passes after the new elections that I think you'd be happy with - if it passes. I support allowing increased international investment also. However I am bothered by you minimum wage proposal. It only provides for 1 workers sustinence, but if that worker had 1 child then they would be unable to support themselves. |
| Date | 04:28:55, June 16, 2007 CET | From | Lodamun Liberal-Conservative Party | To | Debating the The Economic Reform Act |
| Message | Yes, but that's only on the 'minimum' wage. We believe you will find that, due to the natural courses of the market mechanism, you will find hardly any businesses offering such a low wage. And businesses who offer well above that wage will prosper. If a worker is in need of supporting his child, and is being paid on the minimum wage, he is not condemned to stay with that business - he needs to compete in the market, he needs to find the best alternative for his needs. The minimum wage is simply a measure to ensure that employers are not treating their employees like slaves, but there will always be businesses prepared to offer higher wages to attract staff, etc. |
| Date | 11:37:57, June 16, 2007 CET | From | United Republics Party | To | Debating the The Economic Reform Act |
| Message | you lost me there. lets take an unwed mother, highschool dropout, three kids. How does this bill work in her best interest? |
| Date | 12:24:26, June 16, 2007 CET | From | Lodamun Liberal-Conservative Party | To | Debating the The Economic Reform Act |
| Message | She should be essentially impartial to this bill. She will still be able to find and earn the same wages she did prior to the new, lower minimum wage - though, she may have to find a job that pays enough to suit her. But just setting a lower minimum wage will not mean that every business in the nation will suddenly drop their wage-pricing dramatically. Inevitably, whilst there will undoubtably be some businesses dropping their wages, others will see the virtue in keeping relatively high wages, because they will attract more applicants, a better standard of employee, and will generally be more successful. If the hypothetical woman in question needs to support her three kids, she will still undoubtably be able to find wages that suit her needs. The only difference is that businesses will now have more room to set their wages, to be able to better determine what wages are appropriate for their business to make an adequate profit, because young students finding part-time or casual work don't need to bring home the bacon for an entire family. They just want pocket money. Not everyone needs to support three kids, and for those that do, they need to be able to take the initiative to find a job with wages high enough for them. Besides, a woman supporting three kids should be looking for an actual career with a salary, even if that career doesn't require an education - she shouldn't still be trying to support three kids on wages from the local supermarket, and surely people trying to do so would be few and far between. |
| Date | 13:47:54, June 16, 2007 CET | From | United Republics Party | To | Debating the The Economic Reform Act |
| Message | I think many lodamese do take the initiative to find better paying jobs, but everyone else is as well. How can the woman in my example hope to get by? I agree this example isn't the norm, but many Lodamese will be left behind if this bill passes. |
| Date | 17:17:20, June 16, 2007 CET | From | Lodamun Liberal-Conservative Party | To | Debating the The Economic Reform Act |
| Message | The woman in the URP's example is an unfortunate case, and naturally, there will be people like her. But, unfortunately, she is but one individual in a vast, national mechanism that we need to consider. Businesses need to be taken into account, student workers need to be taken into account - everyone does. The least the state can do is provide some form of child support for people in her situation, or some kind of tax shelter, but regulating minimum wages to allow every worker to earn enough money to support a family seems excessive, and businesses aren't all endless supplies of money. It will quite simply cause stagnation and not allow businesses to acheive to the full extent of their capabilities. It may even cause some smaller businesses to go bankrupt, and this phenomena would be a huge blow to the market. Yes, individuals in her situation are very unfortunate and they need to be taken into consideration, but we must remember that there are always going to be disabled people who cannot work, crippled people who cannot work, etc - they will hopefully receive government support and financial aid, and of course child benefits. But the free market is a gigantic national mechanism and unfortunately it does not always have the ability to take into consideration a select group of individuals. This is unfortunate, but we have to think in terms of the greater good - as much as it hurts to say it, coming from a party of fervent individualists. But this scheme should not be of much detriment to people in her situation, and if it is, we will certainly take measures to try and prevent this. |
| Date | 20:01:37, June 16, 2007 CET | From | United Republics Party | To | Debating the The Economic Reform Act |
| Message | our economy is already robust enough. additional steps to increase productivity on the backs of workers are unecessary |
| Date | 22:39:00, June 19, 2007 CET | From | The Unified Lodamun Party | To | Debating the The Economic Reform Act |
| Message | WOw, how ridiculous is this bill. |
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Voting
| Vote | Seats | |||||||
| yes | Total Seats: 0 | |||||||
| no |
Total Seats: 599 | |||||||
| abstain | Total Seats: 0 |
| Random fact: Particracy does not allow real-life fictional references (eg. Gandalf, Harry Potter, Luke Skywalker). |
| Random quote: "Hence it comes about that all armed Prophets have been victorious, and all unarmed Prophets have been destroyed." - Niccolo Machiavelli |