How to stop Black market rising

[Ondonore]

Hello everybody! Do you know how to stop the permanent rise of the black market? Totally regardless what issue it is and how I solve it, the black market is always rising in my nation. It doesn't matter what an issue is about, almost always the black market is affected and rises. Only once, in an issue about the black market itself, I could let it fall a bit. But otherwise it almost always rises. So how could one destroy the black market?

[Tinhampton]

Legalise stuff! The more stuff you legalise, the lower the black market for any given newly-legalised part of that stuff will be (i.e. if you legalise recreational drugs, the lower the black market for recreational drugs will be. Recreational Drug Use is its own World Census category, so that goes up mildly if you legalise it and extremely if you mandate it - for example, putting drugs in the water supply).

[Ondonore]

Thank you, but is it only about drugs? Isn't there any other solution for it?

[Xibei-San-Ma]

Thank you, but is it only about drugs? Isn't there any other solution for it?

Other solution is bigger law enforcement, and more authoritarianism. However, it can not work always. It depends, what nation you are. For example, in this issue: https://nsindex.net/wiki/NationStates_Issue_No._606, I choose the third option, and black market actually ROSE (It was a long time ago), so I recommend bigger law enforcement.

[Ondonore]

Thank you, but is it only about drugs? Isn't there any other solution for it?

Other solution is bigger law enforcement, and more authoritarianism. However, it can not work always. It depends, what nation you are. For example, in this issue: https://nsindex.net/wiki/NationStates_Issue_No._606, I choose the third option, and black market actually ROSE (It was a long time ago), so I recommend bigger law enforcement.

Indeed, like I said, no matter what I do (e.g. stricter law enforcement) the black market is almost always rising. So I think I have to legalize some products I've forbidden.

[Greater Cesnica]

What's wrong with the black market? Who doesn't like the Black Market?

[Greater Cesnica]

But in all seriousness, just legalize shit, increase law enforcement, and privatize industry.

[Ondonore]

Eh, alright, thank you.

[Greater Cesnica]

Eh, alright, thank you.

np

[Minoa]

Other solution is bigger law enforcement, and more authoritarianism. However, it can not work always. It depends, what nation you are. For example, in this issue: https://nsindex.net/wiki/NationStates_Issue_No._606, I choose the third option, and black market actually ROSE (It was a long time ago), so I recommend bigger law enforcement.

Indeed, like I said, no matter what I do (e.g. stricter law enforcement) the black market is almost always rising. So I think I have to legalize some products I've forbidden.

Hi, NSindex is a only reliable source for the results text, and definitely not for the Issues effects: there are currently plans to phase out unsourced Issues effects.

-- Minoa

[Ratateague]

I hate to be contrarian, but much of the advice offered is simply not true. Many of those providing advice might feel like they understand what's going on, but since these nations are relatively new, this is just confirmation bias. I'll explain why in a second. For someone who's been around a while, let me give a few pointers. First, an observation: if you create a nation, maybe answer a few issues, and then sit on it for weeks on end, you'll notice that black market rises automatically. That's right, because it scales with population, and usually with economic growth (but not always). I don't know that there is a way of completely stopping the rise of the black market, at least not without severely crippling your economy with it, but you CAN keep it at bay or in the lower bounds of whatever unseen range is possible for your nation.

If you take the time to look for much older nations, especially top rankers in the world census, many of them, especially economic libertarians who legalize, have black markets so enormous that it reaches a cap (although it likely keeps going beyond that). If you look at the black market census' lowest scoring nations, you'll notice that they're all brand spanking new; no exception. Unfortunately, older nations that do a great job of stemming back their black market score while keeping a free society and a booming economy will never be readily apparently for such efforts, obscured in the mediocrity of average rankings. The trick is not to look at that score in an isolated context, but to compare it to your population, economic output, and possibly other factors.

It would seem intuitive to legalize everything as technically the black market would be a white/grey market as nothing is illegal. However, NationStates mechanics don't seem to reflect this notion, and I'd rather not speculate or argue on the ideological underpinnings. What will work is enforcing reasonable laws, a good social safety net, and incentivizing virtuous businesses. I've seen those who have gone the authoritarian approach, but while it drastically lowers the total value and the economy with it, I'm not sure that it's proportionally lowered. I wish I could give more specific, detailed advice, but it's a holistic approach that's required, and not a quick fix that can be isolated to any one other stat. Just meet the modest needs of your populace while reigning in corruption and excess.

[Ondonore]

I hate to be contrarian, but much of the advice offered is simply not true. Many of those providing advice might feel like they understand what's going on, but since these nations are relatively new, this is just confirmation bias. I'll explain why in a second. For someone who's been around a while, let me give a few pointers. First, an observation: if you create a nation, maybe answer a few issues, and then sit on it for weeks on end, you'll notice that black market rises automatically. That's right, because it scales with population, and usually with economic growth (but not always). I don't know that there is a way of completely stopping the rise of the black market, at least not without severely crippling your economy with it, but you CAN keep it at bay or in the lower bounds of whatever unseen range is possible for your nation.

If you take the time to look for much older nations, especially top rankers in the world census, many of them, especially economic libertarians who legalize, have black markets so enormous that it reaches a cap (although it likely keeps going beyond that). If you look at the black market census' lowest scoring nations, you'll notice that they're all brand spanking new; no exception. Unfortunately, older nations that do a great job of stemming back their black market score while keeping a free society and a booming economy will never be readily apparently for such efforts, obscured in the mediocrity of average rankings. The trick is not to look at that score in an isolated context, but to compare it to your population, economic output, and possibly other factors.

It would seem intuitive to legalize everything as technically the black market would be a white/grey market as nothing is illegal. However, NationStates mechanics don't seem to reflect this notion, and I'd rather not speculate or argue on the ideological underpinnings. What will work is enforcing reasonable laws, a good social safety net, and incentivizing virtuous businesses. I've seen those who have gone the authoritarian approach, but while it drastically lowers the total value and the economy with it, I'm not sure that it's proportionally lowered. I wish I could give more specific, detailed advice, but it's a holistic approach that's required, and not a quick fix that can be isolated to any one other stat. Just meet the modest needs of your populace while reigning in corruption and excess.

Interesting, thank you!

[Bears Armed]

It would seem intuitive to legalize everything as technically the black market would be a white/grey market as nothing is illegal. However, NationStates mechanics don't seem to reflect this notion

They don't. It's the same for the 'Crime' stat, which goes up if you legalise [for example] recreational drugs or [another example] duelling, even though intuitively more things being legal should mean fewer acts counting as crimes... Apparently that measures "Crimes in the opinion of the World Census's managers"...

[Lord Dominator]

It would seem intuitive to legalize everything as technically the black market would be a white/grey market as nothing is illegal. However, NationStates mechanics don't seem to reflect this notion

They don't. It's the same for the 'Crime' stat, which goes up if you legalise [for example] recreational drugs or [another example] duelling, even though intuitively more things being legal should mean fewer acts counting as crimes... Apparently that measures "Crimes in the opinion of the World Census's managers"...

I find legalizing terrorism as a way to politically protest is a great way to raise crime rates.

[Aimard]

I think you're wrong

[Aimard]

But in all seriousness, just legalize shit, increase law enforcement, and privatize industry.

I have a state planned economy since I created this nation a month ago, but my black market is almost nonexistent.

[Xibei-San-Ma]

I think you're wrong

https://www.nationstates.net/nation=xib ... il=economy
I have even better- Black market even doesn't show up. I still have it, if looking at black market index, tho.

[Waroeng Kandz]

I do not really know what is contained in the black market. Because I'm still a new player. But I feel (perhaps) the black market is not only negative things as I thought. I see apart from tourism, where is the service business sector, because what is visible is only the industrial sector. Does the service sector qualify for the black market?