Budget Hero

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Yoorah wrote on 2011-07-15 23:42

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/features/budget_hero/

Basically, it's a game where you learn about the US federal budget and the various things that affect it, namely spending and taxes in various sectors. It teaches about the pros and cons of various measures that the government is considering, and it just seems like a very informative and fun game overall!

My budget:

[Image: http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/237/heroyoorah.png]

Result:

[Image: http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/7015/heroyoorah2.png]

Too bad politics are full of stupid stuff so making progress is insanely difficult. Post yours, and feel free to elaborate on why you made some of the choices that you have!

I find it interesting and sad that no matter how you cut, the spending over the long term seems to catch up and screw you over hard. Even if the deficit is closed over the next 10 years, it seems to grow back after that anyway. x_x
Sumpfkraut wrote on 2011-07-16 00:28

Listening to Capitalism 2 music in the background makes this way cooler.

Also my result, starting in 2012.

[Image: http://i.imgur.com/C46B7.jpg]

I made the decisions I made because they gnerally seemed reasonable to me and are generally conform with my ideals. Really can't be arsed to elaborate.
Mama wrote on 2011-07-16 04:05

A lot of cards I wanted to play simply didn't exist >:I Where's the financial regulation card? I didn't want to freeze military spending either, but just 10% wasn't enough. Ah wells.

that was an interesting game to play. Learning both sides of the coin is always fun..

[Image: http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/3038/unledjcw.png]
Yoorah wrote on 2011-07-16 04:22

I see you both went for the rapid troop withdrawal. It was certainly tempting for me, from the savings point of view, but I really don't think it would be feasible in practice. I mean, the people in charge are trying to stabilize the situation and ready the Afghan gov to take over as we speak, and cutting that short will screw everything over.

By contrast, freezing military spending is not a problem as the US is spending now way more than they have for a long, long time--due to all the wars going on. The financial burden will ease as those wars get wrapped up, from my understanding.
Mama wrote on 2011-07-16 16:44

I believe America has no intention of pulling out completely out of Afghanistan :/ Or any other place where they have stationed troops.

And I would have preferred something more middle ground than completely freezing spending, but alas, a lot of cards I wanted just didn't exist. I'd prefer to cut the Pentagon by 2/3 and eliminate the Ministry of Fatherland Security, then pull out of southwest asia entirely. I don't see it as a war to be won, depending on how you define winning.
Sumpfkraut wrote on 2011-07-16 16:53

Yeah I also jsut took it because it was the closest to what I would have liked to do.

There weren't many sensible options to save in the military budget anyway. I mean seriously, cutting research? No ****ing way.

On a sidenote the Swedish military is pretty awesome.