The Old A'millian Kingdom: Government, etc.

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The Old A'millian Kingdom: Government, etc.

Post by Destructionator »

Note: this is a complete rewrite of the info that originally appeared on OZ incorporating new revisions and generally more detail.


The United Kingdom of A'millians was the nation of all the people of planet A'millia for thousands of years: it was formed in AW 0084, and arguably collapsed in AW 3009, with the extermination of over 99% of its native population.

Location
Planet A'millia II: a space port on the equator and their ancestral homeland: an island about twice the size of Great Britain in the northern hemisphere.
A'millia II orbit: a large space station in low orbit

In the AW 2400's, they expanded a bit to the Koreallius system (known to its inhabitants as the Solar System of Earth), with a small number of their own people living in orbit around the third planet in that system. Furthermore, a number of humans, native to that planet, were incorporated into what would be known as the A'millian Star Empire, which is subsidiary to the Kingdom.


Capital city: the Kingdom's capital, also known as the Royal Capital, since it is where the king resides, is at latitude of about 41 degrees north, on the western shore of their home island.

The Koreallian territories also have their own capital: the Territorial Capital (aka the Inner Capital to humans, and confusingly, sometimes, the Outer Capital to A'millians) is in a space habitat in high orbit around the third planet, and is made to mimic the climate and other attributes of planet A'millia.

Administrative divisions

The nation is broken up at to divisions ruled by a the nobility and, in some cases, appointed rulers.

The noble fiefs are generally left over from the days before the unification of the kingdoms, but some new areas have been created, most majorly, the Koreallian Territories in the AW 2400's, which are ruled by a temporarily appointed viceroy at the top (called the Lord Koreallia) who than decides governors for his own subdivisions.

Military

The Ministry of War is tasked with the supervision of all the nation's military assets, which are focused primarily on a combined military service: HM Royal Knight Service. Secondarily, it has oversight and can take command of local lord's own Knights, and in the Koreallian Territories, the Territorial Militia.

See the following chart for a brief organizational breakdown:

Code: Select all

Ministry of War
|-> HM Royal Knight Service
|--> Land division
|---> Air corps
|---> Gendarmerie
|--> Sea division
|--> Starfleet Command
|--> Royal Guard
|-> Royal Elite Knights
|-> Lord's Knights
|--> (separate services in the name of each lord)
|-> Koreallian Territorial Militia
|--> Orbit Guard
|-> Secret Intelligence Service
As you can see there, the Royal Knights are responsible for a great many things, including some police duties (see next section for more info).

For HMRKS uniforms, there are three general ones used often: the standard duty uniform, the normal ceremonial dress, the Starfleet uniform (based on the Royal Space Exploration Agency's space work suits for historical and practical reasons). The different subdivisions may have their own variations or insignia to add to the same basic uniform, and may have slightly different duty outfits.

One exception to the above is the Royal Elite Knights, who have a different ceremonial dress uniform than everyone else.

The standard duty uniform consists of (something - to be determined) and usually some kind of armor under a white cape bearing the Royal Seal on the back and a helmet (of some sort, again, to be determined). The cape is what stands out most; it is the signature of the service. There are different types of capes for different weather: insulating, water resistant, or lightweight, but all are made to look the same. Many knights also wear swords, daggers, and shields. After the first interstellar war, swords and shields started to be phased out for pistols and rifles for actual combat use, but around friendly locations, the traditional sword was still commonplace.

On the right side of the collar goes up to the neck is the rank insignia and on the left is his position insignia.

(ooc, the knights from Final Fantasy Tactics actually very much inspired the look I'm going for here. See the image here: http://ui03.gamespot.com/738/knight_2.jpg )

Most of the lord's Knights also wear the signature cape, but with the lord's seal rather than the Royal Seal on the back.

Camoflague wasn't a concern when the cape was designed, and even when camo started to become more relevant, the cape remained its bright white out of tradition, however, it wasn't necessarily worn into battle anymore.


The ceremonial dress uniform is made of a shinier material than the standard duty one and includes more elaborate ornamentation rather than armor. The cape is worn more openly than normal, held on by fancy chains (see the picture of Lando below for an idea of what I have in mind). Also, rather than wearing a real sword, a fancy dress sword is worn instead. While a real sword is generally big, heavy, (usually build with two handed use in mind) and, of course, sharp, the ceremonial sword is not sharpened and made for easy handling with one hand. The handle, rather than being utilitarian, is a one handed elaborate gold design that covers the holder's hand. The full uniform also consists of immaculate white gloves and a hat which signifies where the wearer was trained; a common one is the elaborately big Royal Academy graduate hat. (If you have seen the Sci-Fi channel Dune miniseries, think hats kinda like that - they are quite ridiculous.)

See Lando for how the cape in the dress uniform is worn:
Image

The Starfleet uniform consists of two parts: a jumpsuit and a jacket. (Or, for in-gravity work, a two piece outfit might replace the jumpsuit, but generally looks the same.)

The jumpsuit is made in such a way to help counter the effects of freefall on the wearer. Appearance wise, it is bright green and short sleeved with a zipper running down the front. On the left sleeve is the person's unit patch. On the right is the kingdom's flag and, for Royal Knights, the Royal Seal.

Just like the standard knight uniform, the collar goes up to the neck, and on the right side is the wearer's rank insignia and on the left is his position insignia. (The position insignia is a little pin signifying things like ships commander (a little crown) or chief engineer and whatnot.)

On the chest, on the left is the name and information tag (again, just like the standard knight uniform), and on the right is a kind of divisional seal (ooc: this kinda serves the same role as shirt color in Star Trek.).

Here you can see a bad Paint picture I tried to draw of it a few months ago:
http://arsdnet.net/ase/starfleet-duty-1.png
Note that when I drew this picture, I reversed the contents of sleeves. The flag and unit patch in the image should be swapped. I'll correct this when I eventually draw a better picture.

(Also, if you happen to have a copy of the third edition of Gerald O'Neill's "The High Frontier", take a gander at the picture section in the middle of the book. One of the first pages of pictures is a woman in freefall wearing a purple outfit - that illustration is pretty close to what I have in mind for this.)


The wholly optional jacket, which goes over the jumpsuit, has long sleeves and is made of a darker green. It has a wrap around like style, with buttons on the right side and a crease that takes a bend. These buttons can be left open and one part can fold out over the other. The collar is cut off, so the insignia from the jumpsuit is still visible, but the jacket otherwise repeats the other things, like the unit patch. (Or maybe it has cutouts for them; that just might make more sense; I'll have to ponder it.) The jacket can have an optional belt.

[ Think Star Trek TOS movie era uniforms with some light nBSG influence sprinkled in, or look at my shitty Paint drawing: http://arsdnet.net/ase/starfleet-duty-jacket-1.png (again, I swapped the sleeves in that.) ]


Lastly here, I'll discuss the Elite Knight uniforms. Remember King Adam and Queen Leila's description from the OZW conference? They were wearing them.

It consists of metallic shiny green pants, shiny black boots, a shiny black top with shiny blue shoulder decorations that goes across the back, shiny red collars, a fancy belt, the same ceremonial sword as the normal dress, gold lining, and a shiny purple cape, worn over the dominant arm. And of course, the immaculate white gloves and fancy hat.

See this picture for the basic idea:
http://arsdnet.net/uni2-headless.png
(Note: I started with a drawing of Amuro from Mobile Suit Gundam and Painted on the change of clothes. That's why the basic shape looks remotely realistic :P )

[ This uniform is in great part influenced by the beautiful, beautiful SeeD uniform from Final Fantasy VIII mixed with a little bit of Federal Forces uniform from MSG (which is why I grabbed the Amuro picture as a starting point), and the cape I think was actually entirely my own creation. ]


Law enforcement

There are three parts of law enforcement in the old kingdom: the Gendarmerie under the Ministry of War, the detectives under the Ministry of Justice, and the nobility who act as judges.

Organizational chart:

Code: Select all

Ministry of War
|->HM Royal Knight Service
|--> Gendarmerie
|-> Lord's knights
|--> (gendarmes (usually called 'marshalls') under each lord)

Ministry of Justice
|-> Royal Investigative Service
|-> Lord Chancellor of the Judicary
|--> Appointed judges
|-> The nobility acting as judges
|-> Department of Corrections
|-> State Attorney's Office
The gendarmes basically work to prevent crime, like uniformed officers in real life police departments. The Royal Investigators, as their name imply, investigate crimes that have already occurred (they are the civilian detectives), and are usually organized under local lords, working very closely with the gendarmerie.

The gendarmes look like regular knights, but usually don't carry swords (opting for non-lethal options where possible) and wear the insignia badge of law enforcement often along with high visibility vests. The Royal Investigators have much looser uniform regulations, just wearing their insignia.

Once a suspect has been brought in, the State Attorneys and the defendant work to convince the panel of three judges of his guilt or innocence, but all officers of the court have determining the truth as their first objective; if one side knows facts that help the other side, so long as they are true, they are obligated to turn it over. The three judges are the local lord where the offense took place (who also is generally the same person who was in charge of the police search for him), someone chosen at random from the Lord Chancellor's office, and any other member of the nobility requested by the defendant. (Well, it isn't completely random and open like this, since there are practical distance concerns that can come up in some situations, but they try their best to keep it fair within the system. If you request someone from far away who cannot commute or telecommute, you might have to wait in jail for a while before hearing your verdict (the trial proceeds on time however, just recorded for the judge who cannot attend on time))

If two judges are convinced you are guilty and the law applies to you (a valid defense can be arguing that the law should not apply to you in your specific situation or that it is unjust in general, and if you win, you get off and possibly set a precident - this is rare, but the law is pretty flexible in theory), then the one from the Judiciary sentences the convict and sends him off to the Department of Corrections for his punishment. The law does not specify any minimum punishments, so if you can convince the judge that you won't do it again, you can actually get off very lightly, but it takes very special circumstances to generally convince them of this.

Corporeal punishment is permitted and somewhat common; imprisonment is far more rare but is an option.

Education

Education is a big deal in the kingdom. Educated people tend to include their higher level degree title regularly with their name (for example, "Hello, I'm Master of Science John Q. Cardholder"), since it gives a great deal of respect among most people.

Attempting high school level education is a requirement for all persons, but graduation is not: if you fail out, you just have a hard time moving very far up the social ladder (even if you are noble born!), and an effort is made so you only graduate if you actually know your stuff. School up to this point is provided by the National School Service.

After this, if you are academically qualified, you can try to attend a higher academy. In the earlier days, your options were generally to attend one run by a local lord or private organization (who may or may not charge you for it) or to try to get into the prestigious Royal Academy, which is free.

If you then pass their grueling tests, overseen by the Department of Academic Standards to ensure quality, you have not only great knowledge, but the right to use the socially respected title of your degree, so long as you keep your education up to date.

Full doctors, despite appearances to the contrary watching famous people, are actually quite rare - it is quite an accomplishment.

The final goal in education, for most people, however, is to get a professional certification, which is granted after proving you know what you are doing. Presenting a recent degree from an institution under the Academic Standards department in an appropriate field is sometimes sufficient, but you can also just test out (harder than it sounds, but possible, especially if you have real work experience you can show them to help you along).

The academies give you the alphabet soup for teaching and prestige (M. Sc.) and research (Ph. D.), but the Certification Department gives you the useful thing for most job hunting.

Similarly, testing out of classes at the Royal Academy is an option if you can demonstrate competence; there is no seat time requirement for one of their degrees. But this is only useful for graduate level stuff (undergrad degrees don't so much exist - undergrad level classes are more to lead to professional certification than anything else).



After there are people who know the stuff, their knowledge must be applied or used to add to the total knowledge of the kingdom. This is where the Ministry of Science comes in. Its department of research looks into new things while the department of engineering works on applying existing knowledge to make new cool things. Lastly, by decree of Queen Anna, the Royal Space Exploration Agency also exists under the Ministry of Science's banner, and exists to research space (and just to be awesome up there).


Organizational breakdown:

Code: Select all

Ministry of Education
|-> Department of Professional Certification
|->Royal Academy
|-> A'millian National University
|-> Department of Academic Standards
|--> National School Service
|--> (academies run by some local lords and private people/organizations)

Ministry of Science
|-> Department of Research
|--> (different departments for various fields)
|-> Department of Engineering
|--> (different departments for various fields)
|-> Royal Space Exploration Agency
Government

to be typed up

Economy

to be typed up

Culture

to be typed up

See the dedicated culture thread for more information and details:
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=98

Symbols

Flag: Image
The flag symbolizes the merging of the main constituent nations that formed the new united kingdom.

The Koreallian Territories have a slightly different flag which incorporates this one.

The national gemstone is opal. As such, they turn up in seemingly random places, such as some special rank insignia.

The crown shows up in a great many places, symbolizing the monarchy.

Something symbolizes intellect and knowledge. (to be determined)

Something symbolizes power (probably a sword). (to be determined)

Miscellaneous

to be typed up
Last edited by Destructionator on Tue Jun 03, 2008 10:43 pm, edited 7 times in total.
His Certifiable Geniusness, Adam D. Ruppe (My 'verse)
Marle: Lucca! You're amazing!
Lucca: Ain't it the truth! ... Oh, um...I mean...
Marle: Enough with the false modesty! You have a real gift! I would trade my royal ancestry for your genius in a heartbeat!

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Re: The Old A'millian Kingdom: Government, etc.

Post by Destructionator »

Note: I edited the following into the post above on May 29, 2008.


Law enforcement

There are three parts of law enforcement in the old kingdom: the Gendarmerie under the Ministry of War, the detectives under the Ministry of Justice, and the nobility who act as judges.

Organizational chart:

Code: Select all

Ministry of War
|->HM Royal Knight Service
|--> Gendarmerie
|-> Lord's knights
|--> (gendarmes (usually called 'marshalls') under each lord)

Ministry of Justice
|-> Royal Investigative Service
|-> Lord Chancellor of the Judicary
|--> Appointed judges
|-> The nobility acting as judges
|-> Department of Corrections
|-> State Attorney's Office
The gendarmes basically work to prevent crime, like uniformed officers in real life police departments. The Royal Investigators, as their name imply, investigate crimes that have already occurred (they are the civilian detectives), and are usually organized under local lords, working very closely with the gendarmerie.

The gendarmes look like regular knights, but usually don't carry swords (opting for non-lethal options where possible) and wear the insignia badge of law enforcement often along with high visibility vests. The Royal Investigators have much looser uniform regulations, just wearing their insignia.

Once a suspect has been brought in, the State Attorneys and the defendant work to convince the panel of three judges of his guilt or innocence. The three judges are the local lord where the offense took place (who also is generally the same person who was in charge of the police search for him), someone chosen at random from the Lord Chancellor's office, and any other member of the nobility requested by the defendant. (Well, it isn't completely random and open like this, since there are practical distance concerns that can come up in some situations, but they try their best to keep it fair within the system. If you request someone from far away who cannot commute or telecommute, you might have to wait in jail for a while before hearing your verdict (the trial proceeds on time however, just recorded for the judge who cannot attend on time))

If two judges are convinced you are guilty and the law applies to you (a valid defense can be arguing that the law should not apply to you in your specific situation or that it is unjust in general, and if you win, you get off and possibly set a precident - this is rare, but the law is pretty flexible in theory), then the one from the Judiciary sentences the convict and sends him off to the Department of Corrections for his punishment. The law does not specify any minimum punishments, so if you can convince the judge that you won't do it again, you can actually get off very lightly, but it takes very special circumstances to generally convince them of this.

Corporeal punishment is permitted and somewhat common; imprisonment is far more rare but is an option.
His Certifiable Geniusness, Adam D. Ruppe (My 'verse)
Marle: Lucca! You're amazing!
Lucca: Ain't it the truth! ... Oh, um...I mean...
Marle: Enough with the false modesty! You have a real gift! I would trade my royal ancestry for your genius in a heartbeat!

"I still really hate those pompous assholes who quote themselves in their sigs." -- Me
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Destructionator
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Re: The Old A'millian Kingdom: Government, etc.

Post by Destructionator »

Edited this into the OP on the night of May 29.



Education

Education is a big deal in the kingdom. Educated people tend to include their higher level degree title regularly with their name (for example, "Hello, I'm Master of Science John Q. Cardholder"), since it gives a great deal of respect among most people.

Attempting high school level education is a requirement for all persons, but graduation is not: if you fail out, you just have a hard time moving very far up the social ladder (even if you are noble born!), and an effort is made so you only graduate if you actually know your stuff. School up to this point is provided by the National School Service.

After this, if you are academically qualified, you can try to attend a higher academy. In the earlier days, your options were generally to attend one run by a local lord or private organization (who may or may not charge you for it) or to try to get into the prestigious Royal Academy, which is free.

If you then pass their grueling tests, overseen by the Department of Academic Standards to ensure quality, you have not only great knowledge, but the right to use the socially respected title of your degree, so long as you keep your education up to date.

Full doctors, despite appearances to the contrary watching famous people, are actually quite rare - it is quite an accomplishment.

The final goal in education, for most people, however, is to get a professional certification, which is granted after proving you know what you are doing. Presenting a recent degree from an institution under the Academic Standards department in an appropriate field is sometimes sufficient, but you can also just test out (harder than it sounds, but possible, especially if you have real work experience you can show them to help you along).

The academies give you the alphabet soup for teaching and prestige (M. Sc.) and research (Ph. D.), but the Certification Department gives you the useful thing for most job hunting.

Similarly, testing out of classes at the Royal Academy is an option if you can demonstrate competence; there is no seat time requirement for one of their degrees. But this is only useful for graduate level stuff (undergrad degrees don't so much exist - undergrad level classes are more to lead to professional certification than anything else).



After there are people who know the stuff, their knowledge must be applied or used to add to the total knowledge of the kingdom. This is where the Ministry of Science comes in. Its department of research looks into new things while the department of engineering works on applying existing knowledge to make new cool things. Lastly, by decree of Queen Anna, the Royal Space Exploration Agency also exists under the Ministry of Science's banner, and exists to research space (and just to be awesome up there).


Organizational breakdown:

Code: Select all

Ministry of Education
|-> Department of Professional Certification
|->Royal Academy
|-> A'millian National University
|-> Department of Academic Standards
|--> National School Service
|--> (academies run by some local lords and private people/organizations)

Ministry of Science
|-> Department of Research
|--> (different departments for various fields)
|-> Department of Engineering
|--> (different departments for various fields)
|-> Royal Space Exploration Agency
His Certifiable Geniusness, Adam D. Ruppe (My 'verse)
Marle: Lucca! You're amazing!
Lucca: Ain't it the truth! ... Oh, um...I mean...
Marle: Enough with the false modesty! You have a real gift! I would trade my royal ancestry for your genius in a heartbeat!

"I still really hate those pompous assholes who quote themselves in their sigs." -- Me
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Re: The Old A'millian Kingdom: Government, etc.

Post by Destructionator »

I did a minor adjustment to the criminal justice section, making explicit note that a court officer's first duty is to the truth. Thus, if the prosecution has evidence of the defendant's innocence, they are obligated to present it to the court, and vice versa. I believe this kills attorney-client privilege, but oh well. There is no in-universe reason for an alien society to have that in the first place anyway.
His Certifiable Geniusness, Adam D. Ruppe (My 'verse)
Marle: Lucca! You're amazing!
Lucca: Ain't it the truth! ... Oh, um...I mean...
Marle: Enough with the false modesty! You have a real gift! I would trade my royal ancestry for your genius in a heartbeat!

"I still really hate those pompous assholes who quote themselves in their sigs." -- Me
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Destructionator
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Re: The Old A'millian Kingdom: Government, etc.

Post by Destructionator »

I wrote this post for another forum in response to a discussion about another poster's tax plan, in the context of the real world. However, since it is detailing A'millian kingdom income taxes, I'm reposting it here. Lots of graphs below to try and illustrate it.

---


I've been thinking out a tax plan and such for the purpose of the ase-verse. My plan is more steeply progressive than her's, and is of course combined with a guaranteed income.

How mine works is a simple math formula:

gross income = 10000 + other income (adding the guaranteed check first)

let y = take home money
let x = gross income

All these numbers are over the course of one year.

y = 10000 * (log( (3/4 * x) / 10000) +1 ) + x / 4

What the formula says is 3/4 of your income is taxed on the logarithmic scale, and the last one fourth is never touched.

A few graphs may be more illustrative:

Image

The x axis is your gross income, and the y axis is:

The green line is what you'd get if there was no tax at all.
The red line is what you actually get to take home.
The blue line is how much of your money the government takes.


This graph shows the lower to the middle class. What about the upper middle to the rich?

Image

Notice how the money you take home (the red line) always grows - for every dollar you make, you are guaranteed to take home at least 25 cents + some amount of it. However, as you become super rich, the government becomes much richer, much faster.

Here we see the millionaire in gross actually takes home "only" about $300,000, with the government taking $700,000 of it.


Now, a graph of the lower and lower middle class income area.

Image

Note how poorer people get to take home almost all of their money, with the government only taking a somewhat modest amount.

And we'll finish with the lowest amount:

Image

The new purple line is y = 0 - notice how close the blue line, government money, gets to it.

This was actually an consequence of the math function I chose when I first saw it, but I think it is actually a good thing: by giving you a tax break a little *above* the guaranteed income amount, it encourages people to go out and work, at least a little bit, to keep the economy alive, without resorting to forcing people to work.

Now, the tax revenue is only negative below 10,000, which is irrelevant, since you are guaranteed 10,000 anyway through the government checks.

Image
Zoomed in around zero of the above data.
Note government revenue actually goes down for a bit here, but never actually negative.

Image
Zoomed in at your actual income of the same graph as above. At about $13,500, you are no longer taxed. Thanks to tax on the MGI, the actual take home income is about $9500 rather than the $10,000 you receive in gov't checks.

You earn money quickly if you go ahead and work a bit, making it all the more worth it.


If you live together with someone or are married, your incomes are often added together for tax purposes. This varies with a few factors, though.

-----------


Now, my formula there could probably use a little tweaking for the exact numbers, but I really like it for a few reasons:

1) It never removes the monetary incentive to work harder. It lessens it a bit as you move up, but as your gross income approaches infinity, so does your take home income.

2) It guarantees you some money to live off, regardless of anything. A livable income is a basic human right.

3) It makes a lot of money for the government, assuming people still work, but thanks to #1, it is reasonable to assume many people will.

4) Everyone pays into it, so no whining about the poor not contributing to the money fund. (Though, of course, the money they pay in is very likely government dough in the first place. Everyone under about 40k total actually costs the government a little money.)

5) It flows with my theory of money/happiness being a logarithmic correlation.


----

Is $9500 enough to live on? Maybe not by yourself, but if you live with your family and pool money, sure. You can live reasonably well living together.

This encourages efficiency - one house with a lot of people living in it produces far less waste than everyone living in their own house.

Or you can go out and get a job if you don't want to do that, which is good for the economy.


The government uses its revenue to provide many services to the people:

public transportation (which you pay for when you use it)

health care (completely free for the necessities and then some, though you may pay for some cosmetic stuff)

cheap energy (you pay for what you use)

food (completely free for the basics for small individual orders, though you'll probably pay for preparations and such. Bulk orders would cost money.)

higher education (assuming you can pass the brutal tests!)

And of course other basic government duties. Though NOT some of the things the US does: no social security, no minimum wage, no forced work week, no food stamps - all this is rolled into being provided by the MGI.



I really like a lot of things about this system and it seems like it should actually be fairly workable.

---

EDIT: note that things were different in the Territories; for example, food did cost money there, there was no guaranteed income for quite some time (though there were basically food stamps to ensure no one starved while still rationing it out) - this is simply due to a supply and demand situation. On A'millia, the infrastructure is all there producing a surplus for everyone and the culture is used to it and can control themselves. Not so in the post WW3, peak oil, nasty global warming, politically insecure Earth environment. /EDIT


Now, I'm no economist - anyone care to talk me down on this?
His Certifiable Geniusness, Adam D. Ruppe (My 'verse)
Marle: Lucca! You're amazing!
Lucca: Ain't it the truth! ... Oh, um...I mean...
Marle: Enough with the false modesty! You have a real gift! I would trade my royal ancestry for your genius in a heartbeat!

"I still really hate those pompous assholes who quote themselves in their sigs." -- Me
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Re: The Old A'millian Kingdom: Government, etc.

Post by Ford Prefect »

Destructionator wrote:I did a minor adjustment to the criminal justice section, making explicit note that a court officer's first duty is to the truth. Thus, if the prosecution has evidence of the defendant's innocence, they are obligated to present it to the court, and vice versa. I believe this kills attorney-client privilege, but oh well. There is no in-universe reason for an alien society to have that in the first place anyway.
Strictly speaking this is exactly how it is on earth, at least in Australia. It's worded differently, of course, it's not 'duty to the truth' which is kind of nebulous, but instead 'duty to the court' which in this context is also quite nebulous, but it all comes to the same conclusion. If I had a client that said 'oh, I did it, help me get off', I would be required to tell them 'as a lawyer, I can't do that'. Of course, if lawyers were perfect we wouldn't have Boston Legal. :)
Now, I'm no economist - anyone care to talk me down on this?
I took economics in my first year of university and really didn't pick much up from macroeconomics, but it seems sound enough. At the end of the day it just has to work for the A'millians, which is easy to handwave.
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Re: The Old A'millian Kingdom: Government, etc.

Post by Magister Militum »

Ford Prefect wrote:
Destructionator wrote: I took economics in my first year of university and really didn't pick much up from macroeconomics, but it seems sound enough. At the end of the day it just has to work for the A'millians, which is easy to handwave.
Actually, Ford, Destructionator's tax plan would fall under the realm of microeconomics. Getting to the question at hand, your tax plan seems reasonable enough; I didn't detect any real issues (I took both micro and macroeconomics, by the way). I have to admit, though, that the fact that you went out and create a tax plan for the A'millian's is pretty impressive.
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Re: The Old A'millian Kingdom: Government, etc.

Post by Destructionator »

Ford Prefect wrote:Strictly speaking this is exactly how it is on earth, at least in Australia. It's worded differently, of course, it's not 'duty to the truth' which is kind of nebulous, but instead 'duty to the court' which in this context is also quite nebulous, but it all comes to the same conclusion. If I had a client that said 'oh, I did it, help me get off', I would be required to tell them 'as a lawyer, I can't do that'. Of course, if lawyers were perfect we wouldn't have Boston Legal. :)
Interesting. I've heard some talk on SDN about inquisitive systems rather than adversary systems, but I don't really know anything outside of what I see on Law and Order, so this is fascinating. I'll have to read up on it later.
I took economics in my first year of university and really didn't pick much up from macroeconomics, but it seems sound enough. At the end of the day it just has to work for the A'millians, which is easy to handwave.
True, but I really like making everything stay nice and workable where I can.

Something interesting with it being so steep is it would tax those with the most power the hardest - the entrenched aristocracy, who are really quite important in keeping things running. (Arguably, the biggest check on the absolute monarch's power is the upper nobility and their followers. Especially since A'millian nobles can raise their own armies! These armies are generally used as local police forces or other forms of public servants, but they are the noble's own. Combined with many individuals identifying more to a region than to the kingdom as a whole, and you have a very real chance of organized armed revolt if you step too far out of line.)

I've got to write up more of the domestic stuff of Queen Anna's reign. I talked about the scientific advances in another thread and even went into some social stuff, but the changes to the tax plan and such are equally interesting, especially considering the last paragraph.

And that would let me talk about Anna's mother's paranoia a bit more - Rosalie consolidated power under the Crown, in part because she was concerned about a revolt (recall she was nearly assassinated in a move that did kill her husband - and the loss of a spouse is possibly the worst thing an A'millian can live through, it almost invariably sends them into a severe depression, complete insanity, sometimes a fit of rage - it generally doesn't end well.).

Rosalie sets up a bigger central army, and Anna could then threaten to use it: don't pay your taxes, and those nice men and women in clean white cloaks carrying nice shiny swords will come knocking.


Anyway, that will be a post for a later time. I have the half finished second post about the main plot that needs to come first. (And the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth posts in that series that need to be written.)
Magister Militum wrote:Actually, Ford, Destructionator's tax plan would fall under the realm of microeconomics. Getting to the question at hand, your tax plan seems reasonable enough; I didn't detect any real issues (I took both micro and macroeconomics, by the way).
Awesome.
I have to admit, though, that the fact that you went out and create a tax plan for the A'millian's is pretty impressive.
This stuff is a load of fun. It ties into two things that are just awesome to do:

1) Math. Think up the result you want, find a curve that fits, generate an equation, and see how elegant it is. Just a blast to do. (Though, I think I do want to tweak it a bit more - it hits 50% taxation when the blue and red lines cross in the first graph, which is about $130,000 gross annually.

While taking home $65,000 for one person is still a fair chunk of change (and if you have children, they also get the $10,000 guaranteed income which is given to you while they are still your dependent. But here it is tacked on to gross, so you'd actually keep about $3000 looking at the graph (I need to go ahead and get a calculator again. Math is a pain in the ass to do on a computer (you might notice I tend to round off numbers to one or two places very often, try to pick nice round numbers when assuming something or saying "close enough" (notice how many times I say "about" when talking about math) and use symbols nearly everywhere else - the reason is that I generally do the math in my head, and simplifying the numbers makes that much easier. Sometimes I break down and use google, but google is amazingly difficult to use for complex equations with lots of variables - they all blend together into that one ugly line. It is actually easier much of the time to do symbolic algebra in my brain than to hunt down a number in a giant google equation. Anyway, yeah, I really do want a fancy calculator I can use in the dark. (I do have a TI-36, but it is a pain to do fancy equations on it too, and it is solar powered.) I should probably write my own program for this soon.)

Anyway, big digression there. So back the the main point, you'd have $68,000 if you were making $130,000 and had one child. Plenty enough to live off, especially since health care and education - two huge expenses for Americans - are probably covered already. Still, I can imagine someone not caring much for such a high tax rate so quickly.

The Duchess of Zeon over at SDN posted a link today arguing that the total tax rate should never exceed 60% too, out of fear of being a major disincentive to work. I haven't read it yet, but I'll have to when I have some spare time and consider its findings here too.

If this ends up being nasty, maybe I can do some tweaking to the formula to shift it over, or adjust the rate of change (calculus ftw, if you haven't gotten there yet, Calculus II (integrals, etc.) is a class to look forward to (though solving this particular problem might end up getting into ordinary differential equation territory, calc II is the core of the problem). So much useful and fun stuff in there.).

Nevertheless, I'm certain I'm on a good course now.)

LOL The last several paragraphs were a giant parenthetical aside! I actually forgot, bet you did too :P Oh man, I blabber too much!


Moving on, I was talking about why figuring out things like this tax is so much fun (ironically, one of my parenthetical asides that seemed off topic was actually right back on topic; no wonder some people hate my posts! But hey, at least I do edit sometimes.), and point 1) was it is fun to do math.

Reason 2) comes back, in part to the aside about living in there with the money, but the main thing is to remember what this setting is to me: a dream fantasy world I can slip away to when the real world is to lame or whatever.

And, as bizarre as it sounds, dream world, author-insert me does lame boring real world stuff like pay taxes. Or more importantly, bitches (light heartidly of course) about having to pay taxes.

Thinking up realistic complaint dialog in my head is easier and much more fun when I can imagine actually doing it and seeing the actual results. Thus, going into extreme detail about how mundane things works helps me immerse myself in the fantasy life all the more easily.

A side effect of this is some otherwise exciting stuff doesn't get fully explored: I can go into some detail about the author-insert trembling with fear (that shaky sword was a threat only to himself!) during the first war as he swept out an empty building and found a survivor, but have nearly nothing about the teams of men who swept out buildings with relevant plot tips, like the burned carcasses of diseased animals. The former gets lots of detail; the latter gets a couple lines in the plot summary.

Similarly, again about the first war, most the starships carrying people back had to explain wtf was going on to the human governments and deal with their reactions. The author-insert's ship had a warp drive malfunction, so he never made it to Earth (not until ~150 years later, that is). I'll go into detail about the struggle of the crew and Mission Control to get home safely, and even far more detail about the author-insert and a certain young female physician having little chats, but I've barely considered the political drama above Earth at all.

I could go on all day. The final example of really mundane stuff will be the author-insert's wedding day - I've detailed almost the whole thing in my mind*, but the more plot relevant second interstellar war (which was an actual shooting war with dead people and everything, unlike the eviction that was the first war) has only an outline written up for it. I've got to go into detail on that very soon for my plot summary thread.

* Best part: one time a poster over at LibArc asked with... not sarcasm, not incredulity, but something alone those lines, about what the hell my self-insert did on his wedding night. Fascinating question that led me into a huge series of thoughts about a national ID database, more unified government agencies using computer networks, old traditions for the various sub-cultures of A'millians and how they came together, and all kinds of stuff.

What did he do? Have to deal with a name change (which happened due to the bizarre merging of cultures - the author insert is a (north-)westerner, and Mrs author insert is a northerner, on the east side of the river. The accents aren't the only difference.) and the merging of tax information, as well as change of address forms. I've come to the conclusion that it wasn't such a huge hassle that I hoped it was, but still some work had to be done: confirm the name change with the central government, file a change of address form with the central government, the Duchy of Zeon*, and the Barony of Midea. Order new nametags from the Royal Knight Service, Starfleet, the Royal Academy (where he previously worked and still had an access pass, and the Ministry of Science . Get his labcoats re-embroidered with the new name (annoyingly, he just did that a few years prior, to add "D.Sc." to each of the nametags and coats, and now needs to do it again). Confirm a change of next in kin and change of primary care physician with the National Health Service, and he would order a new driver's license from the Department of Motor Vehicles, if he had one. An interesting little fact is the author-insert is licensed to drive spacecraft, but not motor vehicles.

--

* Yes, there is a Duchy of Zeon on A'millia, and the author-insert was born and lived there for a long, long time. It covers the majority of the north-western quadrent of the kingdom. Why did I call it that? Because Mobile Suit Gundam is the fucking tits, and who doesn't want an excuse to yell "Hail Zeon!" and have it be completely justified in-story? (There no principalities, per se, in the A'millian kingdom, but there are duchies, thus why I went with the latter. Also I don't want too much confusion with the MSG nation's name.)

Makes an interesting problem with the character list though. I have a lengthy character list written up, but won't post it yet since several people on it share a name (sometimes purely coincidentally, sometimes intentionally (homages, etc.), and sometimes a little of both) with real people, which can be confusing and in some cases seems bizarre to do without the permission of the real life person (which is at least equally bizarre to ask for). Having a Duchy of Zeon introduces one such character, but still, I like the name.

--

A whole shitload of little changes had to be done, and considering all of that lets me really flesh out a lot of simple things that make it so someone can really feel like he lives there. Probably lame storytelling, but awesome dream life. And when I type them up, I think it will make decent real world arguments for a national ID system.

After finishing all the government forms and stuff, there is only one thing left to do in the day: just go to sleep.

Which real life me has to do, so no time to edit my meandering tonight. Fuck, this is my third giant blabbering post of the day. I never did get around to my real work.... oh well. (The other two were on SDN: http://bbs.stardestroyer.net/viewtopic. ... 1#p2966671 you might find them much more interesting :) )
His Certifiable Geniusness, Adam D. Ruppe (My 'verse)
Marle: Lucca! You're amazing!
Lucca: Ain't it the truth! ... Oh, um...I mean...
Marle: Enough with the false modesty! You have a real gift! I would trade my royal ancestry for your genius in a heartbeat!

"I still really hate those pompous assholes who quote themselves in their sigs." -- Me
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Destructionator
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Re: The Old A'millian Kingdom: Government, etc.

Post by Destructionator »

I changed all the numbers in my function to variable parameters, to make toying with it easier:

f(x) = mgi * (log((taxable * x) / mgi) + 1) + x*(1 - taxable)

mgi is the amount of the minimum guaranteed income; no person can ever gross less than that.
taxable is the fraction of the income that is subject to tax; it is maximum tax rate.

Above, the parameters were mgi = 10000, taxable = 0.75 (thus the income tax maxes out at 75%).


r(x) = (x - f(x))*100/x
This gives the tax rate, in a percentage.

g(x) = x
The gross income.

v(x) = x - f(x)
The government's apparent revenue from the income tax.

a(x) = x - f(x) - mgi
The government's actual revenue from the tax (adjusted for the mgi payout).

(Note that the government also makes money off other things, like selling services, so it isn't as big a deficit as a(x) makes it look. Of course, it also spends on other things, but the complete budget will have to be a later post; first I need to think up income distribution and such, so see how much I have to spend. I might end up adding sales taxes or something too if the deficit is still there (the budget *must* be balanced in the long term (a deficit for a few years is fine if it leads to a surplus a few years later), since there is no one to borrow from except their own future!))

Doubling the mgi parameter gives a beautiful curve, but I think 20,000 guaranteed gross is a bit too big to be realistic. Nevertheless, I do really like the tax rate curve it produces:

Image

If any of you want to burn some time playing around, I use gnuplot to make my graphs and you can copy/paste the formulas right into it as they are above and see what happens.

gnuplot> f(x) = mgi * (log((taxable * x) / mgi) + 1) + x*(1 - taxable)
gnuplot> mgi = 10000
gnuplot> taxable = .75
gnuplot> set xrange [mgi to 150000]
gnuplot> set yrange [* to *]
gnuplot> plot f(x)
His Certifiable Geniusness, Adam D. Ruppe (My 'verse)
Marle: Lucca! You're amazing!
Lucca: Ain't it the truth! ... Oh, um...I mean...
Marle: Enough with the false modesty! You have a real gift! I would trade my royal ancestry for your genius in a heartbeat!

"I still really hate those pompous assholes who quote themselves in their sigs." -- Me
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