On Fri, 6 Sep 1996, jim bell wrote:
At 05:05 AM 9/6/96 +0000, jonathon wrote:
used to test out hypotheticals, for example a "SimEconomy." For example,
They are very hard to program, and the ones that do exist are based on the usually flawed assumptions that the designers make. EG: taxation is a requirement for government stability
I, for one, would love to be able to program in an immediate 25%+ reduction computer-based simulation wouldn't just blindly do the cuts, but would also estimate the secondary and tertiary effects of such cuts, for example
Those are very hard to figure out in advance. Silicon Valley, for one, developed because the government closed several military facilities there. Other examples do exist. << I think it was CATO that published a paper showing that closing military bases caused a short term impact in business, but three to five years later, more business, and with greater diversification, than had the military base stayed. However, such development does not occur, when local government authorities do not permit it to happen -- which is the usual state of affairs. << Can a simulation program put cover the situation where a government cries out for more development, and then prohibits it? That is exactly what most city governments do, and some state governments are starting to do. >>
if the average citizen were made aware of how simple the changes were, he'd be less tolerant of special-interest politics.
The average voter doesn't see any further than the bribe s/he is paid by whichever criminal is trying to inflict his/her mode of destruction on them, come the second tuesday of november. xan jonathon grafolog@netcom.com All people in the employ of government agencies are death-dealers.