Tips to increase Standard of Living & Market Access

[Will_Kepley]

Hey there - relatively new player (only a few hours) & playing as USA.

I have 2 States w "your pop is below the standard of living" @ like 70% (which is high, I know) & the other one is hovering in the mid 30%. (Utah & Rio Grande - long story, but fought Mexico & kept it).

Additionally, Utah's infrastructure SUCKS (hovering at a terrible 49%!) I know....

Where to start? I am currently building industries that should bring the Lower Strata pops jobs/wages AND I have most of the staples relatively low priced (groceries, furniture, clothing, etc).

I'm just spinning my wheels to get anything done to fix it. Every other of the 48 States are "fine" - but Utah & Rio are terrible.

$ is not a problem: I'm maxed out on gold stockpiles from all the gold mines - can I "buy" my way out of this? If so, how?

TIA

wk

 

[Gundabadguy]

Railways are a great way of increasing market access and they provide jobs as well. Providing jobs increases standard of living as people will be able to get a good wage which allows for them to live more comfortably.

 

[DukeLeto42]

Don't pay SoL any mind and fix your infrastructure. Low market access means local goods prices are astronomically expensive, and no amount of flooding the general market with said goods will matter. The only real way to fix it is to get the market access back up - you want it at 100% at all times.

Several states in the American West often have minor infrastructure crises when gold is discovered. Their province modifier reduces infrastructure, which means they start low, and the gold fields popping up drive infrastructure demand far beyond the baseline infrastructure level. Railroads, as Gundabadguy notes, are the only real solution to this, as while they make their money from selling Transportation they also provide local infrastructure.

 

[Will_Kepley]

Wellll - Utah is not getting better, despite building like 10 RR! And Rhode Island has decided to join the "low market access" party: they dropped down from 74% to 68% & falling. I know that Ports & Railroads increase Infrastructure, so what gives here?

I have basically turned off building anything except RR in Utah & RI (& they get Ports), so I am doing SOMEthing wrong that it isn't raising. Any ideas?

 

[DukeLeto42]

Railroads produce infrastructure based on employment. In all likelihood, Utah's railroads are having trouble competing for employment with literal gold mines (shocker, I know). Subsidizing your railroads should do the trick.

 

[Will_Kepley]

Railroads produce infrastructure based on employment. In all likelihood, Utah's railroads are having trouble competing for employment with literal gold mines (shocker, I know). Subsidizing your railroads should do the trick.

It worked! Thanks to everyone helping out

 

[Life is Comedy]

Yeah, unless you play the high transportation costs game, it's always better to subsidize your railways. I pretty much played all my games but one this way.

 

[Hansatron]

I know this is unrelated to the specific issue you faced, but something very often overlooked by USA players is that New York state is one of the best in the game.

Besides being able to build the statue of liberty, New York and Ontario both have the Niagara Falls modifier, giving +20% electricity output. This is a crazy good modifier - it affects output and not throughput - and makes concentrating power plants here extra profitable. The only other state with a modifier like this is Dalmatia, with +15%.

Putting your power plants in new york can really help juice your economy, especially since electricity is bottlenecked when you first unlock it.

 

[.Raptor.]

Prioritise the said states when considering where to build new industry or farms and mines

Even Military bases

 

[Evethor]

Always run Subsidies on your RR.
Especially as the USA.