Covering POP needs in a proletarian dictatorship

[Satyros]

I would also like to propose a greater degree of flexibility on the "proletarian dictatorship" government type because as it stands not only the pops cannot cover life needs even with an abundance of goods available and subsidies at -25% but (I think as a result of the above) I constantly have to deal with millions of rebels, which paint the picture of a totally unstable government and state. Well I totally get the intention behind a proletarian dictatorship being oppressive and all, and I can agree partly with that notion, however the rigidness of this government type means that no reform steps could ever be made to improve peoples' happiness under any circumstances, which point to the idea that all socialist republics were inherently unstable states that had to put down rebellions every couple of years.

For gas, there are two inventions: gas attack and gas defense. Gas defense cancels out the other side's attack. It sounds like they had it and you didn't. As for the government, meeting the needs of the people is an industrialization/tech/prestige issue. It's certainly harder to do with a proletarian dictatorship due to taxation minimums, but still doable. Finally, the regular rebellions are just an abstraction of the peoples' desire for political reform. Proletarian dictatorships can still pass economic reforms to reduce militancy.

The thing is that I am number one in everything surpassing by far all others. I've even reached the "point-beyond-infamy" , not abusing it to btw to paint the map or anything just freely spreading communism. 3 Great Wars have been fought by 1908.

Anyway, on with the discussion here. I've repeatedly read that it's not a good thing to pass reforms that aren't asked for because this radicalizes all other kinds of movement supporters. So at the moment, apart from excellent schooling everything else is at the most basic level of reform. Everything will be given immediately as soon as much as 5% asks for it.

So far, for thematic purposes, I've cheated once to allow meetings because (thematically speaking) it is kind of silly not to be happening 30 years (If I'm not mistaken) after the success of the revolution. I don't intend to cheat my way through problems in this game, just playing mainly for the narrative. I can allow slavery but not public meetings in a proletarian dictatorship. Not cool (for the narrative).

A narrative that has every state job paid to the maximum (for decades now), 90+% of the population literate (even when taking into account the million strong colony in china - all colonies where added to the nation by the previous corrupt regime ) and subsidizing consumer goods by a whooping 25%. We're talking about thousands of "money" thrown at the people every day. And still making a profit.

The only class that is taxed to the maximum is the rich guys. Everyone else at the allowed minimum (50% in this case).

However I get millions of Jacobins, and apparently I have to micro my armies to death to keep a stable roster in each one of them. I refuse to study each and every soldier POP to exclude the rebellious ones. I also refuse to make rebel only stacks and send them to die in the gas deathtraps of France.

Returning to the initial question of this thread, my low class POPs get at best life needs and not all of them. A very small percentage of my middle class gets luxury needs while a larger one gets none (me thinks about artisans) and most others get their life needs, some folks partially.

Rich guys are doing extremely well for themselves which a significant chunk getting their luxury needs alright which baffles me.

Since I was doing so well financially since very early in the game I have something like 18/30 in my commerce techs, while most anything else that mattered is maxed out or almost maxed out. Could this be the problem in a way I don't understand at the moment?

Lastly, people won't buy into the communist agenda, I mean fascists are doing rather fine in society, with a 4% compared to a weak 11% support for the rather successful regime. Under what conditions people stop being "naturally" liberal/conservative in this game?

Thanks for any input. Please do not turn this into a political ****storm, thanks.

 

[aaronlaw97]

Are you producing enough goods for the pops? Are there many unemployed craftsmen? Have you been building factories?
Also I would not support my dictating overlord if he can't provide me with basic food and clothing.

 

[Satyros]

Yes yes, of course, zero unemployment. Personally I would not support any dictator, just trying to figure out how to overcome the obstacles that my regime faces even though in game terms is extremely succesful.

Perhaps I need to conquer some specific areas to make sure that ENOUGH quantities are produces for commodities like tea, coffee and tobacco? Because that's it I think, all else is even overproduced (if I'm not mistaken). However the image that none get their luxury needs is probably more complicated than that, isn't it? I mean, I produce the most cars in the world, for example. And telephones I clearly remember that I produce twice as much as needed), could it be that they don't sell so no money return to the workers? But I am subsidising everything. So, perhaps I need to max out wages in order for them to have more money? I'll subsidize the shit out of them, I care not.

I can't figure it out for the life of me.

P.S.: Oh my, no naughty language eh? Ok.

 

[Aardvark Bellay]

... However the image that none get their luxury needs is probably more complicated than that, isn't it? I mean, I produce the most cars in the world, for example...

Yeah, probably lack of income, too high taxes/tariffs or lack of a resource.

Did you check some of the class pops in "Population" for their needs and what they got ?
Either in the individual window of a pop (by cliking the pop) specifying its needs or by hovering the mouse over the specific needs glass and reading the tooltip ?

 

[KevinG]

If you're subsidizing everything that means that the goods aren't profitable, this means you either lack the raw materials for them or they aren't being sold due to POPs not being able to afford them. If you are large enough to the point where infamy doesn't matter, it's probably the latter. Just because you produce a lot of goods doesn't mean your POPs can buy them all.

 

[Satyros]

I am not subsidising failing factories (except perhaps a couple for military resources) , I am subsiding imported goods by setting tarrifs at -25%. So the state pays for the consumer to buy stuff from the world market at 75% of the price.

Also, I have since passed all wage and pension reforms (and paid fully of course, the money thing is not an issue at all any more) and made sure that I only run profitable factories. The only thing I didn't do was take over the coffee provinces of Brazil and all the tea spaces of China, although if this is what I should do then I can safely say that the economy is meh. I have also researched everything until 1917 related to economics, I am pretty much researching stuff just to complete rows, I have a very high rate of literacy, even counting the 4 million colony in China. Things should go well, but.. they don't.

Nope. Still problematic. It actually says that folks lack the funds to buy stuff, I checked. Anyone knows why? There's something I'm doing wrong surely, but I can't figure out what.

I mean if everyone is always paid to the maximum and having access first to all goods , with a discount if imported, then what fails? Should I move all of my population to very profitable factories (in terms of prices of goods in the world market)? Wouldn't that crash my economy if the low tier production somehow stopped? Mind you, I have been doing this but it creates an unemployment problem (until the new factory levels up) so I don't think this is the proper solution..

Well, if I could only lower taxes a bit ...

 

[Denkt]

I think it is pretty much impossible to fufill all your pops needs because they demand too much compared to what they can possibly earn.

Factory workers only get about 12.5% of the factory profit as salary while the capitalist get 87.5% of the profit and minimum wages and such will not change that for very profitable factories. As you see you won't get far with 12.5%

How much goods people demand is greatly effected by plurality and consciousness. At 100% plurality people demand twice as much goods as they do at 0 plurality and at 10 consciousness they also demand twice as much goods as they do at 0 consciousness and these two multiply with each other.

Literacy is not purely good for your country because literacy give consciousness depending on how much plurality you have. Consciousness in turn lead to higher demand which in turn can lead to militancy. Consciousness also make people liberal with wishes to reform the country and otherwise they may rebel.

People with low consciousness will useally stay conservative who are generally calm.

I think you should use cheat to reduce your pluarlity as that will help your country stay stable.

The only other way I can think of is to overproduce goods with subsidised factories. This will be expensive and will hurt the people who work at those factories but overproducing goods will lead to its price dropping on the world market all the way down to only 22% of the base price which will make it much more affordable for everyone which is of paricular important for the poor strata who generally have trouble to afford goods while being the majority of the people and thus most dangerous to angry. Funiture, Liquor and Regular Clothes should be overproduced as these 3 goods are everyday demand for all poor pops.

People who can purchase their everyday demand will lose militancy and will therefore not rebel.

Yes this will cost you money but the game is very much about redistributing money and overproducing is one way to do it and by far the best way to help the majority of your people to get their needs.

 

[Satyros]

Thank you very much, you have been very helpful I wasn't aware of these specific rules.

I am not bothered enough to cheat about this (though I've cheated once for public meetings because it seemed silly not to allow them some 30 years after the revolution - narrative purposes) rather I am trying to figure out how to play the game with the rules as intended. I don't even mind the rebels per se, they are a minor annoyance. But I want to understand how to properly satisfy the needs of my POPs under this regime.

Thanks.

 

[Denkt]

Then overproducing is probably your best option. The more everyday demand the pops are able to fufill the more their militancy will drop so the cheaper goods they more they can purchase and the more their militancy will drop. Naturally you are going to have to pay alot for the factories.

 

[AmpsterMan]

Perhaps I missed it, but do you have the minimum wage laws? Those always seem to help me out. Furthermore, I would encourage Clerks if possible. They increase the profitability of your firms by up to 20%

 

[Satyros]

Yes, of course, I have been doing everything you have advised (except overproducing goods).

I have tried all solutions I could imagine they would work, without any success.

I sincerely believe the problem lies in the rigid 50% of the taxes.

 

[LodovicoAriosto]

Perhaps the problem is not covering needs but their political reform desire. Even if you make sure the vast majority of your people are well off (or at least as satisfied as in democracy or HMS gov) educated and have all social rights, you still cannot pass political reforms because your upper house is socialist. After a couple of years of communism people get angry because they desire political reforms - in the end you get loads of jacobins and cannot do much about that even if you wanted to. In order to avoid the pain of revolts, it is better to switch back to moderate liberal/conservative regime.

 

[grimkm]

And over production would mean seriously funding failing factories amirite?

 

[Satyros]

Perhaps the problem is not covering needs but their political reform desire. Even if you make sure the vast majority of your people are well off (or at least as satisfied as in democracy or HMS gov) educated and have all social rights, you still cannot pass political reforms because your upper house is socialist. After a couple of years of communism people get angry because they desire political reforms - in the end you get loads of jacobins and cannot do much about that even if you wanted to. In order to avoid the pain of revolts, it is better to switch back to moderate liberal/conservative regime.

Thanks for answering, if this is case, I sincerely hope that the studio will adopt a different approach when/if they ever release a third title in the series.