[Draft] Breaking Taxes

[Ransium]

Title: Breaking Taxes

Text: Widgetazon, the biggest widget producer in @@NANME@@, recently held a contest to determine where it should move its corporate headquarters. In an effort to entice the company, cities across @@NAME@@ promised millions in tax breaks, sparking outrage.

validity: must be capitalist, must be a democracy

option: "Madness!" shouts @@RANDOMNAME@@, Mayor of @@capitilize ANIMAL@@ City, while smashing a widget on the wall by your desk, causing springs and circuits to go flying across your office. "Corporations are playing cities against each other to no one's benefit but their own. Sure the winning city gets a few jobs, but it also wins massive debts and loses out on millions of @@CURRENCY PLURAL@@ in revenue that could be going to paving roads or schools. Worst of all as long as one city is doing all the others have to just to compete. @@capitilize first word LEADER@@, we need a mandate from the top to stop this."
effect: mayors are fearful of angering @@LEADER@@ by attending ribbon-cutting ceremonies for new local factors

option: "You can't do that," cries @@RANDOMNAME@@, Mayor of New @@capitilize ANIMAL@@ City, while squeezing the plush part of a widget like a stress relief ball. "Not every city is as thriving as @@capitalize ANIMAL@@ City, we need the incentives to attract jobs to struggling towns like mine, otherwise we'll disappear. It may take a few years, but these tax breaks will more than pay for themselves in the end. Give us the free reign to craft the local deals we need to, and all of @@NAME@@ will benefit in the end."
effect: citizens against local job subsidies find they can't fight city hall and they can't fight corporate @@NAME@@

option: "The problem here is a lack of a certain firm central control." states your secretary while using the sharp end of a widget to cut up your schedule for tomorrow. "Instead of having local offices be elected posts, you should appoint them yourself. That way they won't have any incentive to compete against each other because they'll have the good of all of @@NAME@@ in mind."
effect: mayors fervently echo all of @@LEADERS@@ talking points

option: "A little friendly advice from one bold and risk-taking leader to another," patronizes Jefe Jesús, CEO of Widgetazon, while using a widget's blue tooth capabilities to record his conversation and broadcast them to speakers in his backpack. "The real competition is international competition. If you don't simultaneously financially support local cities bids to attract these corporations and lower corporate taxes overall, you're in serious danger of most of the major businesses currently headquartered in @@NAME@@ going abroad. Why you should see the offers Dàguó are making me."
effect: taxpayers are struggling to afford all the new @@DEMONYM@@ jobs

[Caracasus]

I'm assuming that you're playing on the whole Amazon bidding war Ransium.

option: "Madness!" shouts @@RANDOMNAME@@, Mayor of @@capitilize ANIMAL@@ City, while smashing a widget on the wall by your desk, causing springs and circuits to go flying across your office. "Corporations are playing cities against each other to no one's benefit but their own. Sure the winning city gets a few jobs, but it also wins massive debts and loses out on millions of @@CURRENCY PLURAL@@ in revenue that could be going to paving roads or schools. Worst of all as long as one city is doing all the others have to just to compete. @@capitilize first word LEADER@@, we need a mandate from the top to stop this."
effect: mayors are fearful of angering @@LEADER@@ by attending ribbon-cutting ceremonies for new local factors

One city is doing it... (missing word there!)

I'd also suggest something in the effect line along the lines of: mayors who so much as accept a free pen from corporate sponsors end up in hot water.

option: "The problem here is a lack of a certain firm central control." states your secretary while using the sharp end of a widget to cut up your schedule for tomorrow. "Instead of having local offices be elected posts, you should appoint them yourself. That way they won't have any incentive to compete against each other because they'll have the good of all of @@NAME@@ in mind."
effect: mayors fervently echo all of @@LEADERS@@ talking points

Hmmm.... I'd suggest replacing this one with a "nationalize the living fuck out of this company and do communism instead." I don't mind drafting up one for this if you'd like

[South Ccanda]

What exactly is a widget?

is is it a play on Fidget toys?

[Verdant Haven]

What exactly is a widget?

"Widget" is a generic term that simply means a small device, usually technological in nature. It is synonymous with gadget, and used similarly to terms like doohickey and thingamabob. It is frequently used in business presentations as an example to fill in for "whatever it is that a manufacturer makes" without getting in to the weeds of the specifics.

[Bears Armed]

What exactly is a widget?

"Widget" is a generic term that simply means a small device, usually technological in nature. It is synonymous with gadget, and used similarly to terms like doohickey and thingamabob. It is frequently used in business presentations as an example to fill in for "whatever it is that a manufacturer makes" without getting in to the weeds of the specifics.

There's at least one issue in use that already uses the term, as well.

[Bears Armed]

What exactly is a widget?

"Widget" is a generic term that simply means a small device, usually technological in nature. It is synonymous with gadget, and used similarly to terms like doohickey and thingamabob. It is frequently used in business presentations as an example to fill in for "whatever it is that a manufacturer makes" without getting in to the weeds of the specifics.

I personally would expect a 'gadget' to be slightly more complicated, typically, than a widget. Having one or more moving parts, as against just being a simple component for some larger contraption... but maybe that's just me...

There's at least one issue in use that already uses the term, as well.

[Australian rePublic]

A widget is a type of app

[Ransium]

Widget may refer to:

Widget (economics), a placeholder name for an abstract unit of production, such as manufactured device or other product

That I’m vaguely describing a widget in strange and contradictory ways is supposed to be the main source of humor in this draft.

[New Ladavia]

Just to provide some feedback I think that you should make the competition to all countries (Though that may undermine the issue.) to make it more reasonable cause you don't care that much which city he's in and only the mayors care for this. Making it an international competition would raise the stakes and also maybe involve Manamana as a leading bid because they are a tax haven.
One thing: blue tooth is spelled Bluetooth

[Ransium]

Just to provide some feedback I think that you should make the competition to all countries (Though that may undermine the issue.) to make it more reasonable cause you don't care that much which city he's in and only the mayors care for this. Making it an international competition would raise the stakes and also maybe involve Manamana as a leading bid because they are a tax haven.
One thing: blue tooth is spelled Bluetooth

I don't agree. What I wanted to (mostly) explore in this issue is competition within @@NAME@@ and local tax breaks. While international competition for companies is an important thing that can be and (I believe has been) explored in the issue base, companies pitting cities or localities against each other is also an important national issue and one that I feel merits exploration. I'd much rather cut the last option than change the entire premise.

[New Ladavia]

One thing I would then recommend is to have some cites from other countries bordering @@NAME@@ like in the real world where cites in Canada also were part of the competition so maybe you should say that they are willing to go to the capital of Bigtopia since its downstream from you.