We are working on a brand new version of the game! If you want to stay informed, read our blog and register for our mailing list.
Bill: Consumer Rights Bill
Details
Submitted by[?]: National Bolshevik 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: November 2609
Description[?]:
| To allow consumers the right to enjoy foreign products without being de-facto taxed by tariffs. This will allow our citizens extra income to spend on domestic products they want to buy and will improve our relations with foreign nations. To recognize the right of any citizen to engage in prostitution regardless of the whims of a local government. This personal choice of a citizen should be allotted throughout the country as directly linked to the constitution of the federal government. To recognize the right of a citizen to his or her body and therefore the ability to use any substance, natural or manufactured, even if it is deemed harmful by government. |
Proposals
Article 1
Proposal[?] to change The right to gamble.
Old value:: The legality of gambling is a matter of local governments.
Current: Gambling is legal, but only in private homes and casinos with special licences.
Proposed: Gambling is legal across the nation, no regulation whatsoever.
Article 2
Proposal[?] to change International trade (this is a default in the absense of a specific free trade agreement or specific trade embargo)
Old value:: The nation allows for imports, but imposes protectionist tariffs and quotas on all imports.
Current: The nation imposes reciprocal tariffs on imports, with no tariffs imposed on states which impose no tariffs on our exports.
Proposed: The nation does not impose any tariffs or quotas on imports.
Article 3
Proposal[?] to change The use of cannabis for medicinal purposes.
Old value:: The legality of medicinal cannabis is established by local governments.
Current: Cannabis is legal as a sedative for patients in pain.
Proposed: Cannabis is legal as a sedative for patients in pain.
Article 4
Proposal[?] to change The right for a person to prostitute himself or herself.
Old value:: Prostitution regulation decisions are left up to local governments.
Current: Prostitution is illegal.
Proposed: Prostitution is legal and a recognized profession.
Article 5
Proposal[?] to change The recreational drug policy.
Old value:: Recreational drug use is regulated by local governments.
Current: The use of cannabis is legal.
Proposed: There are no laws regulating what citizens can put into their bodies.
Debate
These messages have been posted to debate on this bill:
| Date | 07:38:51, July 21, 2008 CET | From | Progress and Liberty Party | To | Debating the Consumer Rights Bill |
| Message | We will not support this. Tariffs are one of the government's main sources of revenue, and while we believe in free trade (which is why tariffs are relatively low and flat, and no other barriers are actually imposed), we believe that taxing foreign goods is fairer than taxing our own citizens. And, while we indeed do support social regulations are limited or non-existent, we do not consider it necessary to deregulate such matters at the national level since they can be, and to my best knowledge are, deregulated in some states. Anyone wishing to frequent a prostitute or use drugs can go to a state where such activities are legal. |
| Date | 21:39:24, July 21, 2008 CET | From | National Bolshevik Party | To | Debating the Consumer Rights Bill |
| Message | -Foreign goods are already at a disadvantage because of transportation and nonlocality costs. They can't adapt as fast as domestic firms can to changing demand yet when they are still considerably lower in cost or of a higher quality they, and our citizens, are punished further by tariffs. This is subsidizing certain domestic industries at the expense of the majority. A different source of government income can be found without sending ideologically mixed-messages to our citizens and trading partners. -Letting local governments impose frivolous restrictions on one's right to one's body is championing mob-rule, so much as it is on a local level. Creating black markets in states with restrictive personal freedoms undermines financial and social cohesion between states and sacrifices minority rights on the local level. -Some differment to local government is legitimate but the rights to one's own body (drugs, prostitution) and personal business decisions (gambling, prostitution) needs to be set in stone at a national level. |
| Date | 21:59:58, July 21, 2008 CET | From | Sons of Liberty | To | Debating the Consumer Rights Bill |
| Message | We agree vastly with the Voluntaryist Front on this. |
| Date | 05:47:25, July 22, 2008 CET | From | Dranland First Party (CC) | To | Debating the Consumer Rights Bill |
| Message | We strongly oppose this legislation in each of its individual articles. We will give brief explanations as to our position: First of all, regarding the articles that concern gambling and the use of illicit substances, both of these are destructive and unnecessary habits, and nothing positive can come of them, aside from the brief and artificial pleasure the weak-willed users get from their depraved habits, if that can be considered 'positive' at all. The damage these habits cause extends beyond its mere effect on the individual addict, as well. Families are torn apart by drugs and gambling, and various crimes involving theft and violence are directly related to the desperate funding of these rediculous pursuits.Drugs and gambling are both immoral plagues on this country - they are cancers that fester and grow, infecting and consuming families, neighbourhoods, communities, and gradually perpetuating the moral decline of our entire society. Habits as destructive as these have no possible justification for being legal, aside from the tired libertarian arguement that the individual should have the right to do whatever he feels like if it doesn't negatively impact on others. The Reform Party does not subscribe to such naiive ideology. Prostitution is a similar phenomenon to gambling and drug-use. It too exploits mankind's imperfections and weak-willed habits of succumbing to temptations. But it is resistance to temptations of things that are so inherantly wrong that has allowed our society to become civilized. Man cannot always be trusted to act on his own instinctive impulses, and prostitution is one such instance. If we allow all individuals to do what they want, this would of course be tantamount to anarchy, which would roll-back the countless centuries of moral and cultural evolution that has brought our society to where it is today, with a firm cultural root in Christian morality. Prostitution is not only a depraved act of meaningless intercourse for the desperate, lonely perverts of our society's dark underbelly - it also spreads a contrary message in our society regarding proper sexual relations and the family. Our countries' particular culture has held for centuries that sexual intercourse is to be practiced by a man and woman who are married, as is defined by our Christian roots - the Reform Party is not about to make a departure from our cultural heritage and values to pursue some ludicrous libertarian, idealistic nonsense - ie., that the individual should do what he wants with no recourse to the negative impact on society, tradition and culture. Furthermore to this, prostitution defies nature itself, in that sexual intercourse is, by nature, and act of reproduction, first and foremost. Whilst we believe that gambling, prostitution and illicit substances should be banned, we also believe that this should be done on a local level. These responsibilities should be delegated exclusively to local government authority, without the federal government undermining them, as is the case in the status quo. This brings us to our final, and perhaps most important problem with this legislation - that is, article 2. Opening our domestic markets to foreign competitors without any tarrifs whatsoever exposes our unprotected businesses, industries and job markets to the destructive forces of trans-national vulture capitalism, and therefore essentially sacrafices them in the promise that our countries economy will be better for it. Nevermind our national sovereignity, our independance, and our autonomy - free trade. Or so this argument holds. But the Reform Party holds the value of sovereignity and independance to be far greater than any globalist economy. We do not want our domestic markets marred by powerful foreign competitors - we do not want our domestic jobs to be lost and outsourced to a foreign country, we do not want our manufacturers and farmers priced out of the market, and we do not want consumers buying foreign products in supermarkets because they're cheaper than our own native products. This requires our full capacity to determine our own tarrifs on all imports - we will not support the limitation of our own domestic trade laws merely because other coutnries would prefer that we didn't impose tarrifs on their exports. Our domestic industries and job markets need protection from foreign giants. Dranland must always come first. |
subscribe to this discussion - unsubscribe
Voting
| Vote | Seats | ||||
| yes |
Total Seats: 64 | ||||
| no | Total Seats: 167 | ||||
| abstain |
Total Seats: 34 |
| Random fact: Treaties will be eligible for deletion if they are more than 50 in-game years old and have no currently ratified members. |
| Random quote: "Poverty is like punishment for a crime you didn't commit." - Eli Khamarov |