Parliamentary Meeting in Stuckenburg

[Stuckenburg]

It has been decided that the parliamentary meetings in Stuckenburg shall be public, since the government should not keep secrets for the people and to prevent corruption. Today the Stuckenburgian Parliament will have its first public meeting, also the Parliament will listen to opinions from other nations.

OOC:

I will post some discussions within the Stuckenburgian Parliament here, feel free to leave a message from your embassy, government or foreign relations ministry.

Today's agenda: Are we too authorian?

Chairman: Some people claims that the state takes too much taxes, has too much authority and that people have few rights. What does Herr Lieblingsfarbe of the Liberal Bureaucratic Party have to say about this?

LBP: It is true that we are starting to look a bit far-left, we in the LBP have tried to stay central but our policies has gone too far left. Still if we lower our taxes it may come to a great cost for the schools and hospitals, unless we compensate it. But I agree that we should try to be more liberal.

Chairman: Thank you, what does Herr Linkenreise from the Social Welfare Party have to say?

SWP: The police needs authority in order to keep our people safe, and we need the taxes in order to give everyone equal protection, healthcare and education we need taxes. We cannot put too much presure on the middle classes and we can't stop provide healthcare for the poor, we have no choice but to tax the upper classes and corporations higher.

Chairman: Thank you, and Herr Zenterliebs from the Democratic Libertarian Party?

DLP: We cannot become a police state, that would be against what our constitution of beruaucracy stands for. We need to grant the people better rights for privacy and make sure that the head of the police will be choosed through democracy rather than meritocracy. Also we should spend slightly less on the police force so that we can lower the taxes a bit, in order to help our economy and to get a free-er market.

Chairman: Thank you, we'll take a break in the meeting.


Feel free to post your nation's opinions.

[Stuckenburg]

Chairman: I hereby hands over the word to the moderat, Herr Zentersraum.

Zentersraum: I think that we should support the freedom of speech by making minor newspaper-companies less dependent of sponsorship, not by granting them government fundings. We should simply support the paper and ink industries to make it cheaper to print newspapers, in that way both minor newspapers and the not so famous paper industries will grow.

[Wittenbach]

Communiqué from the Demokratische Volkspartei spokesperson :
Frau Dr. Friederike Schneider

The fact that parliamentary meetings in Stuckenburg are from now on public and open is something we encourage and applause.
As the ruling party of 16 Kantone out of the 27 Kantone that form The Confederacy of Wittenbach, we are interested in the political developments in Stuckenburg, and also interested in the discussion of cooperation opportunities between our two countries.

Regarding today's agenda, we may say that Stuckenburg is effectively authoritarian, at least compared to countries like Wittenbach. Actually, we think that your tax rates should definitely be reviewed. Of course taxes help financing public services, however, high-taxing the upper classes and corporations discourages investments and investors which means that it would have a negative impact on the economy.

---

Schellenberg Bank AG

[Stuckenburg]

Chairman: We have recieved a message from the Democratic People's Party of Wittbach. *Reads up the massage*. Any comments on that? Any comments on that from the LBP?

LBP: Thank you! I think they are taking up an important issue, we should focus more on the taxes first. Our current taxes are preventing people from achieving their ambitions, rather than being fair taxes. I think we should let the public discuss our authority a little longer, while we get to make our taxes fair. Even for those are ready to work hard in to reach the upper class.

Chairman: Thank you, now Herr Rechtzen from the Democratic Conservative Party.

DCP: Thank you, Herr Talman. I think our current taxes punishes those who works hard to reach their dreams, I think that we should focus on lowering the income the tax, so that people can get succesfull. In second hand we must also make it worth owning a company by lowering the taxes that is within the concerns of the rich, perhaps not the carbon taxes but the corporate taxes.

[Stuckenburg]

Chairman: Let's give the word to Reisenreich of the Authorian Conservative Party.

ACP: Stuckenburg needs a head of state in order to make our authority work, too much power a put for a group of people rather than a leader. But for the taxes we should cut the social wellfare and lower the taxes, then people will work harder and become richer.

[Stuckenburg]

Chairman: We have tried to make it clear how the standards of living are in Stuckenburg, so far we have this:

Population: 40,000
Households: 7,272
Average household size: 5.5
GDP: 77 million STD(7.5 million USD)
GDP per capita: 2,000 STD(190 USD)
GDP per household: 11,000 STD(1045 USD)
Unemployment rate: 13% 5,200 persons
Fertility: 4,5 children per woman.


Class Differences(Counted with househoulds rather than inviduals.)
Upper class: 0.5%(Major corporations)
Upper middle class: 30%(Minor companies and the best paid.)
Middle class: 36%(People with good wage.)
Lower middle class: 22%(People with avarage wage.)
Lower class: 11%(Unemployed and people with less than avarage wage.
Government officials: 0.5%(Politicians and heads of state departhments.)

[Wittenbach]

Communiqué from the Demokratische Volkspartei spokesperson :
Frau Dr. Friederike Schneider

We thank the Chairman for making the standards of living in Stuckenburg clear.
Now, if we are to analyse and comment on these standards, we would compare them to standards in Wittenbach to realise where the government is doing goog, and where it still has to do better.

National Currency: Wittenbacher Franken
Exchange Rates: 1 Wittenbacher Franken = $0.39 / $1 = 2.57 Franken
Population: 289,000
Gross Domestic Product: $2,426,860,000.00
GDP Per Capita: $8,397.44
Average Salary Per Employee: $11,436.86
Unemployment Rate: 9.43%
Exports: $272,540,827.00
Imports: $311,318,052.00
Income Tax Rate: 12%
Consumer Confidence Rate: 99%
Worker Enthusiasm Rate: 100%
----------------------------------------------------
Population: 289,000
Households: 98,634
Average household size: 2.93
Fertility: 0,6 children per woman.

First, we may say that Stuckenburg has a low GDP per Capita, of course because of the high tax rates, but also because of the high fertility rate that makes the population of Stuckenburg grow faster than Stuckenburg's economy, and therefore, the unemployment rate raises, and the lower class gets larger.

Second, as said above by Herr Talman, the current taxes punish those who work hard to reach their dreams. The current taxes also don't allow the workers to reach the upper class. Therefore, Stuckenburg would better review its tax rates to increase the Worker Enthusiasm rates, and the Consumer Confidence Rate which are extremely important to establish a healthy economical environment in the country.

---

Schellenberg Bank AG

[Stuckenburg]

Chairman: We have recieved another message from the Wittbacher Democratic People's Party. Does anyone have to say anything about it?

LBP: Yes, I think we should reform the taxes at the cost of Public transportation and wellfare. We might have to decrease the child benefit to prevent people from getting too many children. But we should stick to our policies about the government not having any recomended child limit.

[Stuckenburg]

SWP: If we shall lower the taxes we should not just lower them, we should start with adding some more tax exceptions. That way everything wouldn't come as a shock.

LBP: That requires cautions, we don't want to accidently create some kind of tax haven. And as an add on, we shouldn't cut the child benefit too much. Since many people already have many children. We should decrease the taxes mainly at the cost of public transportation with small steps.

[Stuckenburg]

Chairman: It has been decided that the tax policies shall be reformed, now let us talk about how it shall be done.

[The most holy electric empire]

The Confederated Republics of the Most Holy Electric Empire

Secretariat of Foreign Affairs

The Electrician government congratulates the opening of the parliamentary meetings to the general public, an act that our goverment interprets as an demonstration of popular goverment.
We also want to inform your parliament of our intention to start economic coperation between our countries, seeing your country as a potential market.

Hoping that our nations may grow in harmony and peace,
Egun Ona Izan

Mustafa Ibn Vladimir
Secretary of Foreign Affairs

[Stuckenburg]

The Parliament has agreeded to sign an ecenomic coperation with The Most Holy Electric Empire. May both our nations benefit from this.

[Stuckenburg]

The Parliament has decided that free school uniforms shouldn't be privided, to give the students freedom of speech by choosing their own clothes and to save some money not having to make them. Also interest groups will no longer recieve donations from the state. With these spending cuts the taxes has been lowered. Following changes has been made:

Income tax: 25% of one's income.
Sales tax: 15% of what the purchaser pays.
Corporate tax: 5% extra income tax.

Hypotheticaly this could mean 5% lower tax for the middle class and 10% lower prices.

[Stuckenburg]

Today's agenda: The Military.

Chairman: According to the constitution we are not allowed uphold an army in times of peace, neither can we demand national conscription nor can the private sector have its own militia. This has been critized since Stuckenburg receantly was attacked by the UISR.