Kind players of the Ecocitycraftian server, Today I wish to pose to you the opening thread for the Taxation Movement, a cry for more taxed towns within the Ecocitycraftian community. I shall begin swiftly, and I ask only of your attention through your lecture of this thread. Plot purchasing is a large market in Ecocitycraft, fuelled by fervent businessmen, eager residents and the zealous wealthy. Hoards of players purchase plots in countless towns every day so as to manifest their expanse assets and vast fortunes, commence the construction of a new local shop or to set a home in which to store their bounteous items collected from their mining expeditions and market trips, and live life as a fair resident. Yet the plot market is flawed. As of the time of writing, the standard plot-purchasing process is that a player buys a plot, and keeps it for the rest of his stay in the town. It's a one-time payment, usually of $1,000 for a 10x10 plot. This system has several issues in it: Mayors, in their want and need for money, will begin to pressurise their residents into leaving the town, sometimes unfairly and in contradiction to the server rules, so that their plot can be reacquired and resold. As a one-time payment and lifelong possession, towns can rapidly fill up and the Mayor will quickly run out of plots to sell, and will thus need to expand his/her town to make it a nation. Ecocitycraft has its own borders, and this will mean that, over time, the Main World will begin to fill itself up, causing lag. It makes Mayorship a near pointless job with little income and no way to change their income due to the competitive global market that forces them to keep low plot prices, thus provoking Mayors to take the actions listed in 1 and 2. The solution? Simple. Taxation. It is quite self-explanatory. Every week, fortnight or month, every resident of a town must pay taxes to the Mayor in order to keep their plots on his/her land. Further-enhanced economies would then incorporate different levels of tax for different features on the plot (e.g. a different level of tax for a store than for a residency). Such a system has several advantages over the current one-time-payment system: Mayors need to worry less of their town space filling up as they will always get roughly the same amount of income whether they evict a resident or not. Expanding would become no longer a question of plot amounts, but a question of income. Mayors are kept busier through tax collection and thus may feel less tempted to found a second town, therefore solving worries of the overpopulation of the Main World. Mayors have no need to pressurise their residents into leaving or perform unfair evictions to resell the plot, as in the long-term less income from the plot acquisition and resale would be made than with the current system. New jobs may be created through tax collectors and treasurers of towns. Towns are given a stronger economy structure, allowing some towns to excel through the housing markets. Taxes could contribute to the maintenance of town services and grief replacements as well, meaning better services for residents. Mayors may receive more money than the current system allows, and have more ability to manipulate their levels of income by changing tax rates. House prices would be allowed to fall as plot value no longer depends so much on space than on tax. If taxation becomes slowly implemented into the economy, then taxed towns would charge less than non-taxed towns in order to persuade players to buy plots there, thus causing lower plot prices. This leaves way for easier plot purchases for builders, meaning a friendlier community structure towards newcomers. New residents would have to understand taxation systems, thus boosting their intelligence and providing a good education to the younger players of the community. The taxation system is more realistic and more applicable to real-life house purchase systems than the current plot purchasing systems. A fairer plot market system. The long-stayers of towns must be taxed more, the short-stayers of towns must be taxed less. Does it seem right that a resident who wishes to use his plot only for one day has to pay the same price as a resident who wishes to make it his retirement home? Under the current system, both residents would pay $1,000. But under the taxation system, each resident would pay differently depending on how long they used their plots, therefore giving more "flexibility" to residents, in that they no longer need to consider the timing issues when purchasing plots. A plot is theirs so long as they want it, not so long as they live. It becomes cheaper for the tourists, as is right. The taxation system penalises empty and unused plots, allowing for more active towns. I wish to end my first entry on the Taxation Movement here, but I leave it open for ye forumers to discuss the benefits and flaws of such a system. May I use this space to advertise, as well, Pontbouleau, a taxed town currently in construction. Initially, Pontbouleau will have the average resident paying $80.00 for their 12x12 plot per week at low tax rates, with plot prices being approximately 250 times under the current server average. This means that a plot owner could stay in his plot for a whole twelve weeks (three months) before their plot expenses would reach $1,000, and this is a fantastic system that benefits short-stayers. $80 per week may not sound much, but if we say that 20 plots are being used in a town, you receive $1,600 per week. This is much more than what some Mayors are receiving now. Thank you for your attention, and I wish you all a good day.
Remember to advertise the Taxation Movement! http://tinyurl.com/ecctaxation ONE-TIME PAYMENT = MORE ABUSIVE MAYORS + UNFAIR HOUSE MARKET + LESS CONTROL OVER INCOME + LESS ACTIVE TOWNS + MORE CONSUMPTION OF SPACE (= MORE LAG) TAXATION = LESS ABUSIVE MAYORS + FAIRER HOUSE MARKET + MORE CONTROL OVER INCOME + MORE ACTIVE TOWNS + LESS CONSUMPTION OF SPACE (= LESS LAG)
I request for this thread to be locked. In hindsight, I will never understand what possessed me to write it. After multitudes of hate comments and fiery debaters following outraged reactions in the global chat, I understand now that the Ecocitycraftian community clearly doesn't want to be taxed, and has no want for my opinion. So I will not give my opinion if it is not wanted. "It's just a game." Clearly it's a game that I can't play at. So I won't play at it. To progress. My sincere apologies to whoever is tasked to the closure of this threat.
