[SUBMITTED] Running Water

[Jutsa]

So, I know I mentioned that I'd upload a completely different issue next, but I really wanted to get this one posted.

This draft is basically a partial rewrite of this draft by Al Hiwariyya al oula.
With his/her permission, we've engaged in a co-authorship of this issue.

I hope you enjoy! It now has four options and is hopefully worded to work with both capitalist and non-capitalist nations.
(Though I'd honestly like for only small-medium adjustments up or down for 4 and 2, rather than a total flip-flop of the economy, I'd understand if it has to flip-flop.)

Title: Running Water
The Issue: Citizens in a small city in the northwest of @@NAME@@ have been left without clean water due to natural compounds contaminating the water supply. As a result, said citizens have to pay for bottled water - and, unfortunately, at exorbitant prices. Your Minister of Welfare came back from @@HIS@@ golfing vacation there, and has decided to bug you about the matter.
Validity: None (Co-authored by Jutsa and Al Hiwariyya al oula)

Option 1: "This is preposterous!" shouts your Minister of Welfare, still in a Manamana-style shirt and shades. "You'd never expect a bottle of water to be so overpriced! You'd think that something so basic, and all over the place, would be free to everyone, no matter what. In fact, if you ask me, I think you should fund shipment and make it free for everyone."
[effect] water is no longer sold

Validity: Only for nations which have any state-run industries (EF at 49 or less)
Option 2: "What do you mean 'free'?" abruptly interrupts capitalist activist @@RANDOMNAME@@, drinking some tap water @@HE@@ got from @@HIS@@ kitchen sink. "People still have to pay taxes, don't they? Why should everyone have to pay for the mistakes some people made to live somewhere like that, anyways? Instead, let private industry take over - then competition will ensure that water will be sold to these people as cheaply as possible. After all, what's the point of having higher prices if your enemies will undercut you?"
[effect] water is a luxury item

Validity: Only for nations which have any private industries (EF at 0 or more)
Option 3: "If someone can't even afford water, what makes you think they could afford anything?" questions socialist activist @@RANDOMNAME@@, currently eating some bread that @@HE@@ may or may not have stolen. "To each according to their contribution; that's what I always say. The government should not only fix the price on water all across @@NAME@@, but they should also set the price of every basic commodity like bread, sugar, rice, and coffee! Yes, coffee - don't tell me coffee isn't essential!"
[effect] all refrigerators have one price set by the government regardless of their performance

Option 4: "You know, this got me thinking," begins your Minister of Creative Solutions, showing you what appears to be a colander. "We wouldn't have this problem is people could just get their own water. We should sell water filters to everyone so that they can get free water! We could then pay for those who can't afford one with the money we get from those that can. It sounds like a win-win solution to me!"
[effect] a fortune was spent on a device that makes water almost drinkable

Title: Running Water
The Issue: Citizens in a small city in the northwest of @@NAME@@ have been left without clean water due to natural compounds contaminating the water supply. The result of this is the fact that said citizens have to pay for bottled water - and, unfortunately, often times have to pay a lot. Your Minister of Welfare came back from @@HIS@@ golfing vacation there, and has decided to bug you about the matter.
Validity: None (Co-authored by Jutsa and Al Hiwariyya al oula)

Option 1: "This is preposterous!" shouts your Minister of Welfare, still in a Manamana-style shirt and shades. "You'd never expect a bottle of water to be so overpriced! You'd think that something so basic, and all over the place, would be free to everyone, no matter what. In fact, if you ask me, I think you should fund shipment and make it free for everyone."
[effect] water is hidden on restaurant menus due to its lack of profit

Validity: Only for nations which have any state-run industries (EF at 49 or less)
Option 2: "What do you mean 'free'?" abruptly interrupts capitalist activist @@RANDOMNAME@@, drinking some tap water @@HE@@ got from @@HIS@@ kitchen sink. "People still have to pay taxes, don't they? Why should everyone have to pay for the mistakes some people made to live out that way, anyway? On the other hand, if you let private industry take over, then competition will ensure that water will be sold to these people as cheaply as possible. After all, what's the point of having higher prices if your enemies will undercut you?"
[effect] water is a luxury item

Validity: Only for nations which have any private industries (EF at 0 or more)
Option 3: "If someone can't even afford water, what makes you think they could afford anything?" questions socialist activist @@RANDOMNAME@@, currently eating some bread that @@HE@@ may or may not have stolen. "To each according to their contribution; that's what I always say. The government should not only fix the price on water all across @@NAME@@, but they should also set the price of every basic commodity like bread, sugar, rice, and coffee! Yes, coffee - don't tell me coffee isn't essential!"
[effect] all refrigerators have one price set by the government regardless of their performance

Option 4: "You know, this got me thinking," begins your Minister of Creative Solutions, showing you what appears to be a colander. "We wouldn't have this problem is people could just get their own water. We should sell to everyone their own personal water filters so they can get free water! We could then pay for those who can't afford one with the money we get from those that can. It sounds like a win-win solution to me!"
[effect] a fortune was spent on a device that makes water almost drinkable

Title: Running Water
The Issue: Citizens in a small city in the northwest of @@NAME@@ have been left without clean water due to natural compounds contaminating the water supply. The result of this is the fact that said citizens have to pay for bottled water - and, unfortunately, often times have to pay a lot. Your Minister of Welfare came back from @@HIS@@ golfing vacation there, and has decided to bug you about the matter.
Validity: None (Co-authored by Jutsa and Al Hiwariyya al oula)

[opt] "This is preposterous!" shouts your Minister of Welfare, still in a Manamana-style shirt and shades. "You'd never expect a bottle of water to be so overpriced! You'd think that something so basic, and all over the place, would be free to everyone, no matter what. In fact, if you ask me, I think you should fund shipment and make it free for everyone."
[effect] water was taken off the menu in several restaurants as it was deemed unprofitable

Validity: Only for nations which have any state-run industries (EF at 49 or less)
[opt] "What do you mean 'free'?" abruptly interrupts capitalist activist @@RANDOMNAME@@, drinking some tap water @@HE@@ got from @@HIS@@ kitchen sink. "People still have to pay taxes, don't they? Why should everyone have to pay for the mistakes some people made to live out that way, anyway? On the other hand, if you let private industry take over, then competition will ensure that water will be sold to these people as cheaply as possible. After all, what's the point of having higher prices if your enemies will undercut you?"
[effect] water is a luxury item

Validity: Only for nations which have any private industries (EF at 0 or more)
[opt] "If someone can't even afford water, what makes you think they could afford anything?" questions socialist activist @@RANDOMNAME@@, currently eating some bread that @@HE@@ may or may not have stolen. "To each according to their contribution; that's what I always say. The government should not only fix the price on water, all across @@NAME@@, but they should also set the price of every basic commodity like bread, sugar, rice, and coffee! Yes, coffee - don't tell me coffee isn't essential!"
[effect] all refrigerators have one price set by the government regardless of their performance

[opt] "You know, this got me thinking." begins your Minister of Creative Solutions, showing you what appears to be a collonder. "We wouldn't have this problem is people could just get their own water. We should sell to everyone their own personal water filters so they can get free water! We could then pay for those who can't afford it with the money we get from those that can. It sounds like a win-win solution to me!"
[effect] a fortune was spent on a device that makes water almost drinkable

Title: Running Water
The Issue: @@RANDOMNAME@@, a famous artist known for struggling to make ends meet, was recently imprisoned in a town known to have no drinkable tap water after guzzling a bottle of it before paying, only to realize @@HE@@ didn't have enough money. This sparked a large feud over whether or not water should be free of purchase.
Validity: Nation has sizable wealth gaps, Option 1 and 2 were not chosen, Nation has prisons. Co-authored by Jutsa and Al Hiwariyya al oula

[opt] "This is preposterous!" shouts @@RANDOMNAME@@, holding up a self-portrait of the artist in question. "You'd never expect a bottle of water to be so overpriced! In an area where the tap water is contaminated, that's the only water you have available. Water is a basic commodity, and it really should be free for everyone."
[effect] water was taken off the menu in several restaurants as it was deemed unprofitable

Validity: Only for nations which have private industries
[opt] "If someone can't even afford water, what makes you think they could afford anything?" questions socialist activist @@RANDOMNAME@@ while hiding the portrait under a handkerchief. "To each according to their contribution; that's what I always say. The government should set the price of every basic commodity like bread, sugar, rice, and coffee! Yes, coffee - don't tell me coffee isn't essential!"
[effect] all refrigerators have one price set by the government regardless of their performance

[opt] @@RANDOMNAME@@, the head of Brancaland Springs water, interrupts abruptly. "We simply can't give the public water without some funds, and frankly, if you can't afford water, then I think you're doing something wrong. Of course, now that the artist is in prison, we're giving away free food and water anyways, so we should probably just have the artist released and pay us back. If not, then you could always confiscate some of the artist's more trivial belongings to repay us instead."
[effect] citizens' properties can be auctioned to pay restaurant bills

Validity: Only for nations without private industries
[opt] "If you ask me, the government can't set the prices right," comments capitalist activist @@RANDOMNAME@@ while hiding the portrait of the artist under a handkerchief. "If you let private industry take over, then competition will ensure that all basic commodities will be sold as cheaply as possible. After all, what's the point of having higher prices if your enemies will undercut you? Well, that is, as long as you keep out monopolization."
[effect] water is a luxury item

[opt] "You know, this got me thinking." begins your Minister of Creative Solutions just after using the handkerchief. "We wouldn't have this problem is people could just get their own water. We should sell to everyone their own personal water filters so they can get free water! We could then pay for those who can't afford it with the money we get from those that can. It sounds like a win-win solution to me!"
[effect] a fortune was spent on a device that makes water almost drinkable

Title: Running Water
The Issue: @@RANDOMNAME@@, a famous artist known for struggling to make ends meet, was recently imprisoned in a town known to have no drinkable tap water after guzzling a bottle of it before paying, only to realize there wasn't enough money. This sparked a large feud over whether or not water should be free of purchase.
Validity: Nation has sizable wealth gaps, Option 1 and 2 were not chosen, Nation has prisons. Co-authored by Jutsa and Al Hiwariyya al oula

[opt] "This is preposterous!" shouts @@RANDOMNAME@@, holding up a self-portrait of the artist in question. "You'd never expect a bottle of water to be so overpriced! In an area where the tap water is contaminated, that's the only water you have available. Water is a basic commodity, and it really should be free for everyone."
[effect] water was taken off the menu in several restaurants as it was deemed unprofitable

Validity: Only for nations which have private industries
[opt] "If someone can't even afford water, what makes you think they could afford anything?" questions socialist activist @@RANDOMNAME@@ while hiding the portrait under a napkin. "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs. The government should set the price of every basic commodity like bread, sugar, rice, and coffee! Yes, coffee - don't tell me coffee isn't essential!"
[effect] all refrigerators have one price set by the government regardless of their performance

[opt] @@RANDOMNAME@@, the head of Brancaland Springs water, interrupts abruptly. "We simply can't give the public water without some funds, and frankly, if you can't afford water, then I think you're doing something wrong. Of course, now that the artist is in prison, we're giving away free food and water anyways, so we should probably just have the artist released and pay us back. If not, then you could always confiscate some of the artist's more trivial belongings to repay us instead."
[effect] citizens' properties can be auctioned to pay restaurant bills

Validity: Only for nations without private industries
[opt] "If you ask me, the government can't set the prices right," comments capitalist activist @@RANDOMNAME@@ while hiding the portrait of the artist under a napkin. "If you let private industry take over, then competition will ensure that all basic commodities will be sold as cheaply as possible. After all, what's the point of having higher prices if your enemies will undercut you? Well, that is, as long as you keep out monopolization."
[effect] water is a luxury item

[Australian rePublic]

1. Option 1- If water is undrinkable, then those places would be where you would expecct bottled water to be overpriced more than anywhere else (except maybe the desert). It's called supply and demand
2. Nice new take on the issue, by the way. Maybe state that tap water is undrinkable in the description
3. Option 3- What has resturant bills gotta do with anything?
4. Option 4- Wait, so if there isn't any private industry, then how did water get so expensive in the first place?

[Jutsa]

1) For a money-focused nation, yes - that's why there are multiple options.
2) Thanks. I'll add that.
3) To be honest, it was left over from AHAO's issue, though I still think it works as an unexpected outcome.
4) Anything can be expensive, with little matter as to what type of economy it is. At least, I think so.

Edit: Forgot to make it another draft. Ah well, this'll be known as the original.
I could just copy it from my wordpad, but I made a few tiny adjustments between the pad and posting this.

[Jutsa]

Bump~

[Australian rePublic]

Validity- Options 1 and 2 were not chosen- options 1 and 2 of what?

[Jutsa]

Oh, options 1 and 2 of this draft in question. I'll clarify that for now, though I can remove it if you think it's best.

[Frieden-und Freudenland]

This issue strikes a chord with me, since the tap water is not potable in many places in Turkey, especially in big cities.

I personally think it is a shame that we have to pay lots of money for bottled water.

As for your issue, how about a water-filtering option?

I really thought a CEO should come and want subsidy for producing water filters for home use, like this:



Of course, I believe these simple devices only get rid of organic impurities (maybe some microorganisms and tiny particles of dirt, etc.) but I imagine they would be completely ineffective in cleansing the water of chemical contamination (e.g. the leakage of heavy metals into the water in Flint, Michigan).

With or without a filtering option, though, it might be good to specify how the tap water came to be contaminated in the first place.

[East Angria]

It's a good issue idea, I like it. But I have some nitpicks about the second option.

Validity: Only for nations which have private industries
[opt] "If someone can't even afford water, what makes you think they could afford anything?" questions socialist activist @@RANDOMNAME@@ while hiding the portrait under a napkin. "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs. The government should set the price of every basic commodity like bread, sugar, rice, and coffee! Yes, coffee - don't tell me coffee isn't essential!"
[effect] all refrigerators have one price set by the government regardless of their performance

1. Not having private industry and having government-regulated prices aren't the same thing. My nation has no private industry, but prices still vary according to production cost. I don't see how the validity category applies here.
2. "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs" is the slogan of communists, not of socialists. The socialist slogan is "To each according to their contribution".
3. Many socialists and communists place great value on gender equality and neutral language nowadays, so replacing "his" with "their" would be good practice.

[Jutsa]

@FuF:

I'll see if I can add it in, somewhere. The issue is more about how water should be priced and who should run it, rather than how it's brought to the public,
but if you think that it'll be good to add why the water in that location's not "available", I'll try to work something out.
(Also, I kind-of like the CEO proposal... maybe I can work that in. )

@East Angria:
1) Not having private industry and having government-regulated prices aren't the same thing. My nation has no private industry, but prices still vary according to production cost. I don't see how the validity category applies here.
I don't think there's an ingame stat that varies based on production costs. If there is, though, then I'd be glad to add it, but of the time I've spent staring at stats, obsessively,
I can say that I don't recall seeing anything like that.

I actually don't really agree with how economic freedom works in NS. If you're at 0 or less, you have no private industry. If you're at 1, then you have a 50-50 split between state and privatization. If you have 50 or more, it's all privatized.
What's more, you can have socialists that have private industry, but also capitalists that are state-run. It's rather confusing, and I also don't agree that freedom in economy necessarily equals a matter of state-run vs. private-run, but that's how the game works.

2 and 3) Straight-up thank you. I'll be sure to change these.

[Jutsa]

Updated. Basically, I just added the socialist saying and a 5th filter option.

I didn't want to specify what conditions the water was in, so this issue could sort of broadly cover the condition at hand,
but I figured the ambiguity made for a good effect line.

I hope this is a step in the right direction, but let me know whether or not it actually is.

[Jutsa]

Bump~

[Luna Amore]

It just reads as forced the way it's setup. He stole something and was punished. It's not much of a dilemma.

I think the core problem could be interesting (places without potable water and whether access to clean water is a right), but setting up around some artist stealing a Dasani sidesteps the issue I think.

[Jutsa]

I could work on that, if you want. Again, I just based this off of AHAO's draft. I believe they said that a situation like this happened at their place, although I somewhat doubt they had a debate over free water after the fact...

I'll try to rework this some other way then. Thank you, Luna. I accept this easily because I, myself, felt something a bit stiff about it, and couldn't quite figure out what it was.

[Jutsa]

Updated! Hopefully this works a bit better, although I'm honestly none-too-certain about it.

If it's a step in the wrong direction, though, I can always work backwards from it. Still, I hope this is an improvement.

Repost: Bump~

[USS Monitor]

It seems very similar to 699: viewtopic.php?f=13&t=88&start=25#699

[Jutsa]

Hmm... I do see your point, though the one's about lead pipes corroding, while this one's about bottled water being delivered to places with all-out contaminated water.
In addition, I think the options are hopefully different enough?

699's options are:
1) Fix the pipes
2) Let people drink lead
4) capitalists selling bottled water
5) state-run fellows selling bottled water
6) Clean the water with something rather dangerous
(also, I'm aware that the numbers are wrong: Fixing that after this post.)

My options here are:
1) Make bottled water free
2) Privatize the water industry
3) State-run all basic commodities
4) Have everyone sell/receive water filters that may or may not work.

I personally think it's different enough, but if enough people agree there's overlap, I can discard this one. Until then, it's still up for review.
Thank you for your input, though.

[Jutsa]

It's that time of the week where this one's scheduled, by yours truly, for a rebump. :3

Maybe that's why it doesn't get much traction - it's bump just after the weekend.
(that, or, more likely, it's just not a particularly interesting issue)

[Fauxia]

I think it’s new material

[Jutsa]

Thanks. :3

[Australian rePublic]

The effect for option 1 makes no sense, as the law in many places requires resturants to provide free water

[Jutsa]

Ahah! Many, not all! Plus, just because it's not on the menu doesn't mean they don't serve it.
(or, at least, that's how it is up this way.)

I'll change it if you can think of a better effect line, though.

[Australian rePublic]

Ahah! Many, not all! Plus, just because it's not on the menu doesn't mean they don't serve it.
(or, at least, that's how it is up this way.)

I'll change it if you can think of a better effect line, though.

How about "drinking water is a resturants biggest expense"

[Jutsa]

I had the drinking water hidden, but it wouldn't be expensive at all as this option makes water free.

[Australian rePublic]

I had the drinking water hidden, but it wouldn't be expensive at all as this option makes water free.

Oh, in that case, explain it better

[Jutsa]

I did update the effect line. :3

Also going to pretty the draft up because... why not, I guess.