NationStates

[Title] To Each According to His Speed

[Description] Today marked a milestone for @@NATION@@’s state-owned automobile industry, with a new batch of cars hitting the street. However, many drivers are sorely disappointed with the Crapant 500, or Crappi, upset with its shoddy design.
[validity] socialist countries with automobile industry

[option 1] "I waited five years for a car, and you give me this?!" snaps @@RANDOMNAME@@, driving at a snail’s pace toward you in @@HIS@@ Crappi, leaving a plume of smoke behind. "And I’ve got the gas pedal pressed to the floor. How do you expect me to make my commute to @@CAPITAL@@ in a tin can like this? I don’t care if you have to import Clinkolns from the United Federation or Otomotos from Sakura: just get me a car that will drive me to work, not drive me insane!"
[outcome]

[option 2] "The Crappi is a testament to socialist ingenuity!" exclaims engineer @@RANDOMNAME@@, spit shining the Crappi in front of you. "It's not the best, but we made it out of what little resources you give us. If you want a higher quality car, maybe make sure fewer raw materials like steel are being shipped to the military. Then we’ll really be driving in the fast lane!" @@HE@@ jubilantly slaps the car’s bumper, which thuds to the ground.
[outcome]

[option 3] "I think our automobile industry might need to shift gears," says Fidel Petrol, repositioning the fallen fender. "Why keep building new cars when we can tune up what we already have? Subsidize courses on automobile maintenance so that every driver can keep their car running for decades. And tell automobile manufactures to only worry about producing vital replacement parts. Sure, these cars will become totally unusable further down the road, but that's a problem for down the road." He duct tapes the bumper back on to the Crappi and hands you the keys. "See? Good as new."
[outcome]

[option 4] "No, most people don’t even need to own a car," comments Party apparatchik @@RANDOMNAME@@, swiping the keys from Petrol’s hand. "Except for people like you and me, @@LEADER@@. We absolutely should consolidate our resources into making fewer, more reliable cars, but let’s remember who has priority. And hey, if someone wants to inform the Party of any counter-revolutionary activity going on in our great nation, I’m sure we could toss a set of keys their way…"
[outcome]

the effect lines got thanos snapped

Yeah, I'm more worried about the content of the options. The outcome line is for when they're finalized.

Hey Czechostan! I don’t think you’ve been around much for several years, so welcome back.

Good premise. The options look pretty long right now, particularly option 3. I don’t really like the reference there to “leftovers from capitalism”. There are other issues that mention something of a similar vein, but some countries have canonically been socialist for a long time. I’m not sure what "leftovers" there are.

Remember to use "straight quotes" instead of “smart quotes”.

Fauxia wrote:Hey Czechostan! I don’t think you’ve been around much for several years, so welcome back.

Good premise. The options look pretty long right now, particularly option 3. I don’t really like the reference there to “leftovers from capitalism”. There are other issues that mention something of a similar vein, but some countries have canonically been socialist for a long time. I’m not sure what "leftovers" there are.

Remember to use "straight quotes" instead of “smart quotes”.

Thanks, yeah it's been a while.

I was worried about length too, especially for #3. I'll see what I can cut. It's a reference to Cuba restoring old cars from the capitalist era, and while it may not always be canonically accurate, there's plenty of NationStates issues that bring up things that might not be canonical to a country like having rainforests. I think it can be safely said that if a country is industrial and socialist now, there probably was a period of time before where they had cars. But I can also try to rephrase it to something like "old cars."

Right, I forgot about that.

Option 2- why assume that nation has no resources? Also, why not import resources?

Australian rePublic wrote:Option 2- why assume that nation has no resources? Also, why not import resources?

The implication is that they have resources, but not enough are going toward the cars. Kind of like IRL East Germany, which had to make their cars out of duroplast instead of steel, because much of the steel was going toward the military.

Importation is kind of covered by the first option, but I suppose I could add an option where East Lebatuck offers to export resources/cars or something, idk.

Great references to the former Trabis of East Germany

Yeah, I think the options can be cut down some more. Cut down what does not contribute to the narrative or the humour of the issue.

As for the premise, I think the problem in real life Germany was that the Trabi was really affordable, which led to the huge demand compared to supply, leading to long waitlists.

With that in mind, option 2's "sold at admittedly high prices" does not really work (the option also doesn't talk about how it will fix the quantity issue). Option 4 can be the typical capitalist solution to the issue, which is to raise prices so that demand matches supply. That way, the cars are only affordable to the party elite.

It may be worth considering that some nations don't have a military.

Electrum wrote:Great references to the former Trabis of East Germany

Yeah, I think the options can be cut down some more. Cut down what does not contribute to the narrative or the humour of the issue.

As for the premise, I think the problem in real life Germany was that the Trabi was really affordable, which led to the huge demand compared to supply, leading to long waitlists.

With that in mind, option 2's "sold at admittedly high prices" does not really work (the option also doesn't talk about how it will fix the quantity issue). Option 4 can be the typical capitalist solution to the issue, which is to raise prices so that demand matches supply. That way, the cars are only affordable to the party elite.

Thank you for the feedback.

Maybe I'll just cut out the talk about price altogether, since my main concern in the issue is about the quality of the car.

Terrabod wrote:It may be worth considering that some nations don't have a military.

This is true. I think I've gotten other issues where options mention cuts to budgets that I don't have funded. So the consequence is your Defense Forces go from -14 to -16 or whatever. Which isn't as big change, but it's still some trade-off.