Economy

[TheDarkside]

What am I doing wrong?

I just started the game and after a little time passed I started to record my income:

Total +100.928
Poor +79.1
Middle +17.1
Rich +4.8

Expenses:
Total -84.104
Education -18.29
Admin -10.78
Military -24.92
National Stockpile -30.1

This was after I adjusted everyone's tax to 33%, and raised Education/Administration to 75%

I didn't really change anything else.

I did start expanding a glass factory in Massachusettes

I set my national focus in two states to promote craftsman/promote capitalist

Couple minutes later after I unpause I watch as my gain per month becomes a loss, and it just steadily gets worse and worse and I dont know why.

Each of my pops are giving me less and less tax per day. Meanwhile my national stockpile keeps going up.

Man this is confusing...

 

[TheDarkside]

Recording my tax income again, I show:

Poor +33.2
Middle +4.6
Rich +1.6

I ran into debt so I disbanded my entire army and navy. This helped a little bit with some income but I am back in red again. I dont know what is going on *shrug* Factories are going bankrupt. I am totally lost here

 

[JoeGiavani]

It's a demo.

 

[ozmono2005]

It's a demo.

I don't see how that is relevant.

I haven't had the problem and I have no idea why it is happening for you. Sorry I cannot help.

 

[unmerged(15623)]

It's a demo.

Which, AFAIK, is the same version as the retail game?


There is undoubtedly going to be quite a bit of fluctuation in the economy initially as the cash reserves and prices set in the game files adjust themselves to the actual flow of the game. Also, the early factories are so ineffective that even mild tariffs can quickly drive them closed.

 

[RELee]

Depends on what all you're trying to accomplish. If you are at war with Mexico, the first thing that happened is that your goods needs doubled for your armed forces. That will eat into your bottom line badly early on.

So will increasing factories right away. Goods are needed to expand the factory, and those come from the world market and costs you money.

Taking up the education/Admin sliders cuts in. You don't need to jump into that too quickly, or I didn't. Those increases come slowly anyway.

Then you dropped taxes. What are you? Republican?

Plus, in my games, the capitalists start building railroads. This is as it should be. Not expanding factories right away.

War or no war. I recommend not touching anything right away. Let the game churn along on its on a bit and watch how the economy is eating, spending and making money. Make gradual slider changes. Use your NF points to colonize the western territories. Increase your influence in North America to start and get Haiti, Hawaii, USCA in your Sphere of Influence. Profits will rise slowly. As they rise, slowly lower taxes and increase the sliders for edu/admin.

You will be amazed at how much having other nations in your SoI helps your economy.

If you are at war, try to keep the mil slider between 50-60%, otherwise, drop it down to around 20-30%.

If you are at war with MEX, you will have to go into a deficit in the early game. You may have to drop the edu/admin sliders. Don't touch the stockpiles slider.

Something like that. Once you get the feel for it, the changes will be more natural. It's all interconnected, like the sliders in EU3, it's just not as obvious as it is in EU3.

 

[TheDarkside]

Ok, it started to turn around after I adjusted the admin/education sliders down to about 60%.

Then with the income coming in I was able to pay off my debts (went into debt before I disbanded my military) and then came the expanded factories and railroads and the income is steadily rising more. I also got USCA in my sphere.

No war with anyone yet otherwise I wouldnt have disbanded the military

Yeah this is going to take some getting used to... I just wish I had a little bit more feedback or insight into why exactly my pops were losing money so fast. why ther tax income was dropping like a brick

I was thinking the starting economy would be a bit more stable. this is reminding me of vicky 1

 

[Furutta]

I struggled to make much of a surplus for a while at the game start, but within three years I was fully funding education and administration, and was starting to increase the size of my starting military (was goona teach those mexicans a lesson). before you start thinking about war you could always reduce the national stockpile slider or something, that seemed to help me early on.

 

[RELee]

I struggled to make much of a surplus for a while at the game start, but within three years I was fully funding education and administration, and was starting to increase the size of my starting military (was goona teach those mexicans a lesson). before you start thinking about war you could always reduce the national stockpile slider or something, that seemed to help me early on.

Just don't do like I did one game and forget to move that stockpile slider back up before engaging in battle. Them boys lose fast that way.o

 

[RickInVA]

One thing that King said in a thread stuck with me, it is the effective tax rate, not the base rate that impacts income and pop MIL. At the beginning your tax efficency is so bad that at 100% you are actually only taxing the pops at 28% (IIRC). Hover and get the tool tip for the tax setting to see what your effective rate is.

Edit: Its actually 23% at the start. So you can "tax" at 100% and not be stripping the pops bare.

 

[Furutta]

Just don't do like I did one game and forget to move that stockpile slider back up before engaging in battle. Them boys lose fast that way.o

I can only imagine. Fortunately I waited on my war until I was pulling a surplus during the war at full supply.

 

[stantz]

The first time I played I got stomped too, the second time I did all that stuff, plus disbanded most of my navy and jacked up the tariff, so even with the war going I didn't go into the red.

It's got a pretty steep learning curve, but I got the hang of it pretty quick, the budget anyway, industry is still a big for me, and I have no idea what to do for technology, one tech every 3-4 years seems kind of

 

[timsfker]

A few thing that I found helps with the budget in the first couple of years:
- Tariffs help, not only for income but also for protecting your factories while they develop (which is consistent with economic theory).
- I went to the trade interface, turned off automation for artillery and clipper convoys, and then told the game not to buy any of either. this saved ALOT of money, and was probably the best thing to help with the budget. I didn't notice much of a consequence with my armies, but of course that might be different if you are at war.
- Smart use of the national foci you get really helps.
- Don't set the tax rate too low, from my experience it seems like it doesnt just have the effect that you see when playing around with the slider, but also consequences in the future (the income received will gradually fall).

 

[Benandorf]

Raise taxes. People are only unhappy about the true tax rate, which can be found in the tooltip. If that number is less than 33%, they'll be happy. And from 36-51, even at 100%, true tax rate will be less than 33%.

 

[Ex Mudder]

Raise taxes. People are only unhappy about the true tax rate, which can be found in the tooltip. If that number is less than 33%, they'll be happy. And from 36-51, even at 100%, true tax rate will be less than 33%.

Right. You can tax at 100% across the board and only really be taxing at 23%. It's 100% of taxable income, not 100% of all income.

 

[safferli]

Research Mechanical Production first. Without it, you'll have a hard time getting positive balances.

Your problem will most likely be that you expanded the factory, you need to buy many goods for that. That will (temporarily) kill your budget.

Get Brazil into your sphere.

Tariffs give you a lot of money early on, but might stop your POPs from getting all goods they need. Shouldn't be too much of a problem with the US.

Rich taxes to zero (yes, I'm a republican ) and let them do all the industry/railroad building. Saves you a lot of money.

 

[lee1026]

Also, don't worry about running a deficient - all that money goes to your pops, who then puts the money into the national bank. You can borrow as much as you like from that national bank, effectively making it your treasury. In other words, any money you give your pops have a way of swimming back to you.

 

[Letar]

Small tip: if you are starting with a new country, don't immediately spend the cash you have but see for a while how the budget evolves. When the fluctuation stabilizes (either showing profit or loss), adjust your budget screen to your liking and see what happens. When you get a positive cash flow and some cash stored, start spending (factories, armies, ships, whatever you wish). This way you won't hit the bottom immediately on game start.

 

[Letar]

Right. You can tax at 100% across the board and only really be taxing at 23%. It's 100% of taxable income, not 100% of all income.

This is indeed true. The administrative efficiency affects the taxes as shown in the tooltips.

 

[RedRalphWiggum]

Don't fund your national stockpile at anything like 100% when at peace. Treat as you did army maintainance in EU3.