Late Game Socialist Germany - Too much industry for the world

[Klausewitz]

So, I am in the 1920s, a cooperative Council Republic and I am number 1 producer of probably 95% of products.
I am importing huge numbers of raw materials to feed my industry, have abandoned basically any worksaving devices and yet I do not have enough work for everybody.
I have now happened upon Art Academies as one of the few things that still have growth potential.
Does anybody else have any tips for this situation?

 

[Delterius]

Does anybody else have any tips for this situation?

brace for a '1950s deepening crisis' probably

although i'd imagine that the foreign investment mechanics will allow us greatly increase the world's potential for commodities and delay that death spiral until after the game is over

so, right now, you can plan for this sort of thing I guess and conquer/release colonies as dominions. they'll gain AI agendas towards resource development and you don't have to find a job for their people besides consuming their produce.

 

[Klausewitz]

Oh, I am still doing well with something like a million marks coming in at lowest tax setting and highest welfare setting (or did before the American Flu hit) but I can see the Malthusian cliffs approaching... not so much in terms of food (I could, no joke, feed half the world) but in terms of money.

 

[ConstantineTheGreat]

Start conquering everywhere to get more raw resources

 

[Klausewitz]

Start conquering everywhere to get more raw resources

I could. I have the biggest army in the world by 50% I think, but I did not take colonies, only took what I could get by peacefully uniting with Austria, freed anything not German (Hungary, Moldovia, etc.) and I would really like to see how far I can get without military aggression.
But yes, it seems the economy goal which I am going for this time is only achievable by conquest.

 

[Promethium555]

this game is too easy to min maxx imo

 

[Secret Master]

Does anybody else have any tips for this situation?

This thread might be relevant to your situation: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/what-would-an-economist-call-this-situation.1572153/

You may not like the answers in that thread, but it should provide some context for what you are experiencing.

 

[Fart_Gas]

So, I am in the 1920s, a cooperative Council Republic and I am number 1 producer of probably 95% of products.
I am importing huge numbers of raw materials to feed my industry, have abandoned basically any worksaving devices and yet I do not have enough work for everybody.
I have now happened upon Art Academies as one of the few things that still have growth potential.
Does anybody else have any tips for this situation?

Perhaps build more universities too? I mean, art academies are profitable, unlike universities, but at least universities provide research. I've managed to complete games without getting everything in the tech tree.

Another possibility is to build a lot more power plants, and ensure that you keep them on the hydroelectric setting instead of coal fired or oil fired. This way, you generate jobs and electricity without consuming raw materials.

 

[GrounchoVilla]

Broke: "Malthus was right, the world will starve to death if the population goes above a billion!"
Woke: "Malthus was wrong humanity can feed itself easily without just starving all the poor"
Bespoke: "We've literally built every lead and sulphur mine on the planet that we can and we still dont have enough factory jobs"

 

[Stelaria]

My personal theory is that this happens because demand for services, art and transportation are artificially limited by the SoL mechanics by demand for luxury goods. In a real-world scenario, a situation like this would result in a massive proliferation in inner-city service industries, but that can't happen because the urban rich aren't able to invest enough in services without satisfying their demand for luxury drinks and furniture/porcelain/clothes.

It's an innate problem with the nature of the SoL scaling that works in the early game when high-SoL pops are aristocrats, but breaks down later when you have a large urban middle class, who are rich but don't necessarily own enough real estate or housing space to buy the exorbitant amounts of material goods a landowner would.

It's also very likely that the lack of a simulation for land pricing is a factor as well; but at very least, the demand scaling for SoL levels above about 25 or so might need some adjustment.

Also where's the lumpenproletariat?

 

[GrounchoVilla]

The REAL thing the game needs?

Shorter working day laws that make existing factories hire more people. The solution to mass unemployment at the time from the trade unions was the 8 hour working day since it meant shifts had to be split between workers

 

[Pro]

My impression is that economic growth seems to fast over all. In my games I sometimes see AI run African countries run out of peasants to man their buildings by the 1880s, in places where subsistence farming still persists today.

 

[Veiovis123]

although i'd imagine that the foreign investment mechanics will allow us greatly increase the world's potential for commodities and delay that death spiral until after the game is over

you can just outright conquer the planet and build every single mine and logging camp possible worldwide yourself and face the same problem. So unless coupled with a deep rework of RGOs, foreign investment is useless (for solving this particular problem).

 

[SacremPyrobolum]

Paradox underestimated the efficiency of their players. There just aren't enough raw resources to outlast a someone who knows how to get the Industrialization Feedback Loop going from day 1. Combine that with the AI not properly developing their own resources and you get constant threads like yours justifiably complaining about shortages.

There are also not enough PMs that increase yield, especially for mines. You get a tier 1 and tier 2 upgrade to mine base yield but then have to wait all the way until tier 5 to get another one. You should get another upgrade at tier 4 with Electricity.

The solution is to introduced Land Reclamation and Prospecting mechanics to the game to increase the amount of mines and arable land we can build on as tech increases. Perhaps they should also make some of the more advanced PMs using 'advanced' resources more efficient (Elastics uses less velvet, Oil Pumps use half as much oil and produces double the output).

Another solution is to create Service Industries that don't consume many or any resources. This is what City and Trade Centers are supposed to be, but obviously they aren't sufficient. I'd like to see them employ more people based on how much you've invested in Institutions (more schools => more Intellectuals in City Centers) as well as more clerk jobs per level to represent the office buildings running Admin for all the State's factories.

Of course I aways ask myself whether this is all working as intended. After all, resource scarcity is what is supposed to get you to go out and do an Imperialism or Free Market, which is the point of the game. But on the other hand I don't think the 1900s United States was hurting much for basic iron and wood but I'm welcome to be proven wrong.

 

[Delterius]

you can just outright conquer the planet and build every single mine and logging camp possible worldwide yourself and face the same problem. So unless coupled with a deep rework of RGOs, foreign investment is useless (for solving this particular problem).

well, foreign investment would mean that you only have to care about own core pop growth rather than that of overtly prosperous tax evading colonies. so the tweaks go both ways atm.

 

[Sbrubbles]

So, I am in the 1920s, a cooperative Council Republic and I am number 1 producer of probably 95% of products.
I am importing huge numbers of raw materials to feed my industry, have abandoned basically any worksaving devices and yet I do not have enough work for everybody.
I have now happened upon Art Academies as one of the few things that still have growth potential.
Does anybody else have any tips for this situation?

Nope, you have reached the endgame in terms of production

 

[Oktobermensch]

Limit population growth. All possible laws that limit pop growth or just let the unemployed starve and emigrate, cancel all subsidies.

 

[Sparticulous]

Limit population growth. All possible laws that limit pop growth or just let the unemployed starve and emigrate, cancel all subsidies.

He is a socialist my comrade, not a capitalist

 

[TheSeraphim]

He is a socialist my comrade, not a capitalist

This is why our lord and savior Stalin gave us Human wave tactics.

Edit: Honestly though, would that work? Does conscription prioritize unemployed POP's that could be sent on "pointless" wars in the middle of Malaria-ville?

 

[Sarmatian]

This is why our lord and savior Stalin gave us Human wave tactics.

Edit: Honestly though, would that work? Does conscription prioritize unemployed POP's that could be sent on "pointless" wars in the middle of Malaria-ville?

Not really. Even in worst case scenario, you'll end up losing a couple of hundreds of thousands, while your pop growth from just SoL will be several times that yearly.

I'm playing a fully liberal Russia. In 1906 I have around 250 million population, with 30 million of those in Africa roughly. I expect to surpass China by game end.