Saturday 13 April 2002

Pic of the day: SimCountry map, this time of Latium Secundum. (I did not make the name, I inherited it.)

SimCountry lessons

Much like in the real world, messing with a SimCountry's economy is a treacherous thing. You intend to make it better, but it is not always that simple. The parallels to my native Norway are still rather creepy. Then again, I understand the game was made by Dutchmen; they are in approximately the same situation.

Latium Secundum was in pretty good shape when I took it over. Before I had time to make any significant changes, it jumped into the middle of the top 300, which is where competent players are supposed to hang out. The finances were good and the state was running a surplus. Almost the whole workforce was employed. In fact, this is the problem.

If I could just keep my hands off, my peaceful little country would presumably hover around in the rich world league indefinitely ... until some greedy neighbor decides to invade it, that is. There was only a token defense, and the newbie protection will not last forever.

I have bought various implements of defense (no offensive units) in the order and tempo recommended by the newspaper, which in this case serves as the voice of reason. (Don't try this in the real world, obviously.) But the various helicopters, planes etc require personnel to operate them. These are seduced away from the ordinary workforce, and this is where the tribulations begin. Then when I try to make it better, it grows worse. Why am I not surprised?

***

I read up on the problems of labor shortage, and ordered "effectivity upgrade" for several of the many state owned companies. This is a process in which low-tech workers are replaced with computer systems and a smaller number of high-tech workers. The net effect (no pun intended) is to reduce the employment in the companies. It worked too well. Several of the factories are now in the process of closing their doors for good.

What happened was that I rapidly used up all the high-tech engineers. I changed my education priorities to educate more of them, but of course that takes years. Meanwhile, the "effectivity upgrades" take like three months, and leave several factories unable to function at all, since they lack key personnel. Others have some engineers, but not enough to maintain full production. A long row of corporations have simply booted all their workers and stopped production. They still have their loans to pay, though, and are headed rapidly for closure. Unemployment has soared from less than 5% to 11% in half a year.

Wage inflation has run amuck. Despite the unemployment, the sum total of workers' income is at an all time high. Intriguingly, all groups have seen their income rise so far. I doubt that will continue, though. Welfare payment is quite low in Latium Secundum, so they had better get a job. I guess I will give them some more months to look around, while I minimize my messing with the economy. I guess I'll expand the road and rail network, it seems to not have any significant impact on employment and should improve efficiency in the business that is still around. Perhaps that's what I should have done from the start, that and educate more engineers for a few years before I started to play Victor Norman with the state companies.

(Victor D Norman, respected teacher of economics, is the current Minister of Labor and Administration here in Norway. He is quite serious about reforming the flabby state economy, which is a significant part of the entire economy around here. Good luck, man. You'll need it.)

The Latium military, incidentally, is doing well enough. No shortages there.