To be very clear, I'm
not advocating for money in HoI4
As per
@FindFloppies 's points, it would add a layer of complexity that I would prefer was spent on naval mechanics, myself (and others would prefer was spent on other things)
. And in saying this, money as I'm talking about wasn't present in HoI1, 2 or 3 either, even if it had a dollar sign next to it - that was a similar concept to total IC (where research slots from HoI4 would be seen as a form of money in HoI3, say).
In terms of the uses of money, while a government that is able to fully coerce and manipulate its population could gain full control of the total domestic production capacity, it cannot do this internationally - and while a gov't
may be able to coerce and deceive its citizens, its capacity to coerce and deceive other nations is much lower. A credible monetary policy enables effective international borrowing, while a "throw caution to the wind and print money like it's going out of fashion" approach would be likely to cut off access to using loans from overseas to boost short-term production (to help the war effort - which very much happened)*. Even if it's just a case of modelling gold reserves, without some kind of "stock" that can be run down to purchase foreign-built equipment and resources, HoI4 is lacking a key element to the international trade in goods that played a significant part in the war effort for a number of countries. It's the other side of "Future CIC" - future CIC is traded for resources or capacity now. Of course, turning that into a game mechanism that can't be easily abused could be tricky. Sorry that's all a bit vague, but I'm getting hammered by work this week, so in no position to hit the books and provide more concrete examples - and as my head's a bit off, I may be off the mark as well
Also, while a government may in theory be able to fully coerce and manipulate its population to gain full control of to domestic production capacity, the issuing of war bonds and similar mechanisms to raise money suggest strongly that at least those countries that did so were aware of the need, even in wartime, to not just print money without care for the consequences, because even wartime economies can be brought undone by poor handling of monetary policy. Again, I'm afraid hitting the books to provide more concrete examples now isn't something I'm up for, so this is all very vague. Also, given players are the "spirit of the nation", it could be argued that the CIC takes into account bonds, although there's no direct mechanism for running down types of domestic capital to help the war effort, per se.
As for the pandemic response measures, I'd argue very strongly they relate to a very different financial system(s) and environment than that prevailing in the 1930s and 1940s, and aren't the best example for this kind of thing.
Again, I'm not saying I think money should be in HoI4 - I'm not sure I'd like it to turn into an international trade and domestic bond-raising simulator
And I'm also saying that money, as we're talking about, hasn't been in HoI4 to date (so it's not a case of "bringing back money", but rather exposing HoI players to new mechanics and ideas).