The Widening Gyre
Description:
@@CAPITAL@@ is recognised as the political and economic heart of @@NAME@@, but cities elsewhere in the nation are now complaining of government favouritism towards the capital. The gains of the capital have been the losses of the outlying regions.
Validity:
250 million population
Has a capital city
Options:
[option]"Everything is stacked in @@CAPITAL@@'s favour," complains @@RANDOMNAME@@, the Mayor of the second largest city, "and that hurts us. We are losing our brightest minds, our trade contracts, our cultural presence and even our political voice to the capital. I'm not saying we need to get rid of @@CAPITAL@@ being our capital, just that we need to strip it of any special status. Pass legislation to spread industry and jobs across the country, and distribute the apparatus of government across all the cities of your country. We're all @@DEMONYMPLURAL@@, how about some recognition of that?"
[effect]the once prosperous capital is in economic, political and cultural decline
[stats]inclusiveness increases, wealth gaps decrease, income equality increases, culture increases, political freedoms increase, economy decreases, authoritarianism decreases,
[option]"Enough about the cities!" demands country farmer @@RANDOMNAME@@. "Once, we were a simple folk with nine of ten of us living in the villages or the homesteads. Them big cities are nothin' but smoke an' noise and people wit' their uppity ways. Break 'em all up, says I. No more then three thousand folk should be in one place."
[effect]the capital is vastly depopulated as its people are forcibly moved to farming communes in the countryside
[stats]wealth gaps decrease dramatically, culture decreases, economy decreases, Sector: Agriculture increases a lot, primitiveness increases a lot, eco-friendliness increases a little, happiness increases a little, health increases a little, economy reduces massively, industries: basket weaving / car manufacturing increase, industries: pizza delivery / retail / information technology reduce, ideological radicality increases, civil rights decrease
[option]"These yokels should stop complaining," says big city businessman @@RANDOMMALENAME@@. "The wealth of the capital trickles down to the rest of the country: for example, I myself have spent part of my seven figure salary on a lovely holiday cottage in a picturesque village up north, and I source all my quinoa from a craft farm a whole ten miles from the capital. Reject these objections, and instead create more economic incentives for growth of the capital. It doesn't have to cost your government anything, just make some small shifts in the corporate tax burden to bolster up @@CAPITAL@@."
[effect]well over 90% of the country's economic activity takes place in the capital city
[stats]inclusiveness decreases, wealth gaps increase, income equality decreases, culture increases, economy increases, employment decreases, primitiveness decreases, toxicity increases a little, happiness decreases
[option]"We do need a Capital for government purposes but there's no reason for that to be to the economic detriment of the country," says Senator @@RANDOMNAME@@. "I suggest you keep a place of central government but designate an area as state-owned land, filled with low-rise government buildings, historic monuments, embassies and national museums. Keep private development out of it, and make it somewhere people visit rather than live, unless of course they are in the business of politics. Put the capital in the geographic rather than economic centre of the nation, but have it above and separate to the nation proper."
[effect]@@CAPITAL@@ was recently voted one of the top 10% dullest capital cities in @@REGION@@
[stats]economy increases marginally, government spending on administration increases,
