[ACCEPTED] To Each According to Whatever's Left

[Jutsa]

Inspired by this draft; also yet another attempt at a socialist issue. One day...
Oh, also, yes, I'm attempting to have a reversal for no smoking.

Draft 2.12

Title: To Each According to Whatever's Left
The Issue: Multiple state warehouses that records say were supposed to be stacked high with sacks of recently harvested potatoes were recently found to be empty, leaving many to speculate about bureaucratic mix-ups, or corrupt black market reselling, or alien potato abduction. Investigations are ongoing, but in the meantime a lot of people are getting hungry.
Validity: Socialist, economy not a powerhouse

Option 1: "We need to immediately direct our workforce toward producing more food," urgently states your Minister of Food Distribution, rolling onto your table a parchment which had so many lines on it that you could barely make out it's a map of @@NAME@@. "If we don't want our citizens to starve, we need to not only offset this as soon as possible, but always produce a surplus. Sure, it'll produce waste, but at least our comrades will be satiated and nourished."
[effect] workers are reassigned to produce compost

Option 2: "We should assure our populace that everything is going to plan," says your Minister of Propaganda, brushing dust from your desk into a jar of kvass. "Just use cheap filler in the production of our food for a while, and don't tell anyone. I hear saw dust can be used as an effective supplement."
[effect] the latest dietary craze consists of 20% pencil shavings

Validity: Smoking is legal
Option 3a: "You know, I've heard that smoking helps people eat less," says your brother, peppering your ash tray with a big wet cigar. "Ergo, we should encourage everyone to take up smoking."
[effect] addictions are supported by the government

Validity: Smoking is illegal
Option 3b: "You know, I've heard from some pals in our neighboring nations that smoking helps people eat less," says your brother, who smells subtly of burnt dignity. "Ergo, we wouldn't have this problem if we legalized smoking."
[effect] addictions are supported by the government

Option 4: "I don't get why we don't make people grow their own stinkin' food," sighs your Minister of Agriculture, wielding an impressive sickle. "From each according to his ability, to each according to his ability. That way we don't have people splurging off the system at the expense of others, we don't have to worry about freak problems in our logistics, and we'll all be truly equal."
[effect] MPs wake bright and early to milk the cows before passing legislation

Title: To Each According to Whatever's Left
The Issue: Multiple state warehouses that records say were supposed to be stacked high with sacks of recently harvested potatoes were recently found to be empty, leaving many to speculate about bureaucratic mix-ups, or corrupt black market reselling, or alien potato abduction. Investigations are ongoing, but in the meantime a lot of people are getting hungry.
Validity: Socialist, economy not a powerhouse

Option 1: "We need to immediately direct our workforce toward producing more food," urgently states your Minister of Food Distribution, rolling onto your table a parchment which had so many lines on it that you could barely make out it's a map of @@NAME@@. "If we don't want our citizens to starve, we need to not only offset this as soon as possible, but always produce a surplus. Sure, it'll produce waste, but at least our comrades will be satiated and nourished."
[effect] workers are reassigned to produce compost

Option 2: "We should assure our populace that everything is going to plan," says your Minister of Propaganda, brushing dust from your desk into a jar of kvass. "Just use cheap filler in the production of our food for a while, and don't tell anyone. I hear saw dust can be used as an effective supplement, and we have plenty of it after those Maxtopian wood-eating things shredded our orchards last week."
[effect] the latest dietary craze consists of 20% pencil shavings

Validity: Smoking is legal
Option 3a: "You know, I've heard that smoking helps people eat less," says your brother, peppering your ash tray with a big wet cigar. "Ergo, we should encourage everyone to take up smoking."
[effect] addictions are supported by the government

Validity: Smoking is illegal
Option 3b: "You know, I've heard from some pals in our neighboring nations that smoking helps people eat less," says your brother, who smells subtly of burnt dignity. "Ergo, we wouldn't have this problem if we legalized smoking."
[effect] addictions are supported by the government

Option 4: "I don't get why we don't make people grow their own stinkin' food," sighs your Minister of Agriculture, wielding an impressive sickle. "From each according to his ability, to each according to his ability. That way we don't have people splurging off the system at the expense of others, we don't have to worry about freak problems in our logistics, and we'll all be truly equal."
[effect] MPs wake bright and early to milk the cows before passing legislation

Title: To Each According to Whatever's Left
The Issue: Multiple state warehouses that records say were supposed to be stacked high with sacks of recently harvested potatoes were recently found to be empty, leaving many to speculate about bureaucratic mix-ups, or corrupt black market reselling, or alien potato abduction. Investigations are ongoing, but in the meantime a lot of people are getting hungry.
Validity: Socialist, economy not a powerhouse

Option 1: "We need to immediately direct our workforce toward producing more food," urgently states your Minister of Food Distribution, rolling onto your table a parchment which had so many lines on it that you could barely make out it's a map of @@NAME@@. "If we don't want our citizens to starve, we need to not only offset this as soon as possible, but always produce a surplus. Sure, it'll produce waste, but at least our comrades will be satiated and nourished."
[effect] workers are reassigned to produce compost

Option 2: "Woah, hold your daliboz there comrade. There's no need to get into a panic over a freak coincidence," assures @@RANDOMNAME@@, a maintenance worker and logistician, going over a report of a mushroom farm exploding with whiteout. "We can ask the public to generously forgo meals as a donation to this disaster. That said, it wouldn't hurt us to invest in some better security just to make sure this never happens again."
[effect] potato farms are protected by concrete barbed walls behind military personnel

Option 3: "We should assure our populace that everything is going to plan," says your Minister of Propaganda, brushing dust from your desk into a jar of kvass. "Just use cheap filler in the production of our food for a while, and don't tell anyone. I hear saw dust can be used as an effective supplement, and we have plenty of it after those Maxtopian wood-eating things shredded our orchards last week."
[effect] the latest dietary craze consists of 20% pencil shavings

Validity: Smoking is legal
Option 4a: "You know, I've heard that smoking helps people eat less," says your brother, peppering your ash tray with a big wet cigar. "Ergo, we should encourage everyone to take up smoking."
[effect] addictions are supported by the government

Validity: Smoking is illegal
Option 4b: "You know, I've heard from some pals in our neighboring nations that smoking helps people eat less," says your brother, who smells subtly of burnt dignity. "Ergo, we wouldn't have this problem if we legalized smoking."
[effect] addictions are supported by the government

Option 5: "I don't get why we don't make people grow their own stinkin' food," sighs your Minister of Agriculture, wielding an impressive sickle. "From each according to his ability, to each according to his ability. That way we don't have people splurging off the system at the expense of others, we don't have to worry about freak problems in our logistics, and we'll all be truly equal."
[effect] officials wake bright and early to milk the cows before passing legislation

Title: To Each According to Whatever's Left
The Issue: A severe storm has wiped out a significant portion of farm land, forcing the nation's government-planned food supply to be compromised — for the third time this week.
Validity: Socialist, economy not a powerhouse

Option 1: "We need to immediately direct our workforce toward producing more food," urgently states your Minister of Food Distribution, rolling onto your table a parchment which had so many lines on it that you could barely make out it's a map of @@NAME@@. "If we don't want our citizens to starve, we need to not only offset this as soon as possible, but always produce a surplus. Sure, it'll produce waste, but at least our comrades will be satiated and nourished."
[effect] workers are reassigned to produce compost

Option 2: "Woah, hold your daliboz, there's no need to get into a panic over a freak coincidence," assures @@RANDOMNAME@@, a maintenance worker and logistician, going over a report of a mushroom farm exploding with whiteout. "We can ask the public to generously forgo meals as a donation to this disaster. In the meantime, we should invest in better crop protection and response time for emergency services."
[effect] potato farms are protected by concrete barbed walls behind military personnel

Option 3: "We should assure our populace that everything is going to plan," says your Minister of Propaganda, brushing dust from your desk into a jar of kvass. "Just use cheap filler in the production of our food for a while, and don't tell anyone. I hear saw dust can be used as an effective supplement, and we have plenty of it after those Maxtopian wood-eating things shredded our orchards last week."
[effect] the most popular dietary craze consists of 20% pencil shavings

Validity: Smoking is legal
Option 4a: "You know, I've heard that smoking helps people eat less," says your brother, peppering your ash tray with a cigar. "Ergo, we should encourage everyone to take up smoking."
[effect] addictions are supported by the government

Validity: Smoking is illegal
Option 4b: "You know, I've heard from some pals in our neighboring nations that smoking helps people eat less," says your brother, who smells subtly of burnt dignity. "Ergo, we wouldn't have this problem if we legalized smoking."
[effect] addictions are supported by the government

Option 5: "I don't get why we don't make people grow their own stinkin' food," sighs your Minister of Agriculture, wielding an impressive sickle. "From each according to his ability, to each according to his ability. That way we don't have people splurging off the system at the expense of others, our means of production will be evenly spread, and we'll all be truly equal."
[effect] officials wake bright and early to milk the cows before passing legislation

Title: To Each According to Whatever's Left
The Issue: A significant bread storage and distribution center was recently set aflame, causing the sprinkler system to ruin and mold the remaining bread, forcing the nation's government-planned food supply to be compromised
Validity: Socialist, economy not a powerhouse

Option 1: "We need to immediately direct our workforce toward producing more food," urgently states your Minister of Food Distribution, rolling onto your table a parchment which had so many lines on it that you could barely make out it's a map of @@NAME@@. "If we don't want our citizens to starve, we need to not only offset this as soon as possible, but always produce a surplus. Sure, it'll produce waste, but at least our comrades will be satiated and nourished."
[effect] farmers are worked to the bone creating food intended to be used as compost

Option 2: "Woah, hold your daliboz, there's no need to get into a panic over a freak incident," assures @@RANDOMNAME@@, a maintenance worker and logistician, going over a report of a mushroom storage turning green with whiteout. "We can ask the public to generously forgo meals as a donation to this disaster. In the meantime, we should invest in better emergency transport infrastructure and better actual structures for food storage."
[effect] military personnel starve to death transporting milk from one underground vault to another

Option 3: "We should assure our populace that everything is going to plan," says your Minister of Propaganda, brushing dust from your desk into a jar of kvass. "Just use cheap filler in the production of all of our food, and don't tell anyone. I hear saw dust can be used as an effective supplement."
[effect] the most popular dietary craze consists of 90% pencil shavings

Validity: Smoking is legal
Option 4a: "You know, I've heard the fire was started because someone forgot to put out a cigarette butt," says your sister, emptying your brother's ash tray. "Ergo, we wouldn't have this problem if we banned smoking."
[effect] the unexpected rise in food consumption has left a surprising food shortage

Validity: Smoking is illegal
Option 4b: "You know, I've heard from some pals in our neighboring nations that smoking helps people eat less," says your brother, who smells subtly of burnt dignity. "Ergo, we wouldn't have this problem if we legalized smoking."
[effect] addictions are encouraged by the government to subdue hunger pangs

Option 5: "I don't get why we don't make people grow their own stinkin' food," sighs your Minister of Agriculture, wielding an impressive sickle. "From each according to his ability, to each according to his ability. That way we don't have people splurging off the system at the expense of others, and we'll all be truly equal."
[effect] officials wake bright and early to milk the cows before passing legislation

Edit: Changed thread title to [ACCEPTED]. Prior last edit: Jan 10, 2020

[Trotterdam]

[effect] farmers are skin and bones creating food intended to be used as manure

1. It's unfair to describe an option aimed specifically at creating a food surplus resulting in people being "skin and bones". Come up with a different downside.
2. Err, you know what manure is, don't you? While all food - at least, all food that gets used for its intended purpose - becomes manure eventually, there are some important steps in the middle. Food is not manure and manure is not food unless you're a dung beetle.

[Jutsa]

1) Fair. Was thinking overworked to the point of not being able to eat but that's not really implied.
2) Meant compost. Dangit. xD

[USS Monitor]

You've got some very on-the-nose effect lines in here.

Also, this seems like something you could fix by decentralizing your food supply a little, even if you stayed socialist and maintained the same production levels.

[Australian rePublic]

Ha? Your nation's entire food supply is based on a single, perisble item? Ha? Where are the bananas? Is your food supply seriously that non-diverse? But bread is perishable and wouldn't last long anyways. This problem would be very short term and only effect a single product. No bread? No problem- you still have milk, cheese, fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, etc. etc. etc. And it makes no difference to the gluten intolerant/celiacs in either case

[Jutsa]

@on-the-nose: fair. Always struggle with those.

@decentralization: Hmm.... yes. Could have a fun effect line about peanut butter being spread too thin?

Ha? Your nation's entire food supply is based on a single, perisble item? Ha? Where are the bananas? Is your food supply seriously that non-diverse? But bread is perishable and wouldn't last long anyways. This problem would be very short term and only effect a single product. No bread? No problem- you still have milk, cheese, fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, etc. etc. etc. And it makes no difference to the gluten intolerant/celiacs in either case

Fair. But my point was that in a socialist nation with a poorer economy would already be stringent about overproducing food (I'd think) so a food shortage from a disaster wouldn't be as unlikely. Still, maybe there could be a more stringent validity for it.
Also, it wasn't meant to hint that bread was the only food — merely that it was a significant loss to the nation's entire food storage.
Option 2 kinda hints at it being not uncommon, but maybe I can make it a bit more significant in the description, like having it be the third fire in a week?

[Australian rePublic]

Destroy the farms, not the storage facilities

[Jutsa]

Destroy the farms, not the storage facilities

Oh...

oh, yes, that's a good idea...

[Free Santa Rosa]

With these options, I get the feeling that you don't like socialism that much...

Also, I'd probably make it valid to those with a bad Agriculture industry, or maybe bad Environment too.

[Candlewhisper Archive]

Ha? Your nation's entire food supply is based on a single, perisble item? Ha? Where are the bananas? Is your food supply seriously that non-diverse? But bread is perishable and wouldn't last long anyways. This problem would be very short term and only effect a single product. No bread? No problem- you still have milk, cheese, fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, etc. etc. etc. And it makes no difference to the gluten intolerant/celiacs in either case

Agree with Aussie on this. A single storage facility of a single product being lost is not going to be a national issue -- it might reduce availability of that item, but it's not going to impact national hunger in any significant way, especially for those nations with populations in the billions.

[Jutsa]

Agreed. Changed it to be something a bit more drastic.

Did a couple other things:
1) Changed option 2 to reflect the new description, and also made the narrative a bit funnier
2) Changed 4a; especially didn't care for the old one after the change.
3) Put a reference to the wood-eating spikeballs in option 3, but I could easily remove it if it's deemed a bit too much fat.
4) Changed effect lines. Still on-the-nose but I'm not great at those things.
5) Lengthened option 5.

Also thought about having 4(a/b)'s effect line be something about a tobacco farm burning down.

[Australian rePublic]

Third time this week? If storms werr that feequent, then the government would have to bite their tounge and plan for the future, no matter how much they don't want to. Even the Torah/Pentatouch, a 3000 year old book, has better forward planning. Unless, of coarse, your country takes Australia's to El Niño/La Niña management, in that, it's perfectly realistic

[Jutsa]

Eh, I didn't mean to imply that it's the third storm this week, just that something unexpected happened to food storages three times,
which I hoped option 2 (and 3 if I keep that added segment) also implied. May still be a bit excessive, but it's kind of amusing at least.

[Baggieland]

I agree with Aussie, I read it as the 3rd storm this week as well.

[Australian rePublic]

Eh, I didn't mean to imply that it's the third storm this week, just that something unexpected happened to food storages three times

My feedback still stands

[Candlewhisper Archive]

To me, a storm lacks satirical edge, and is too reminiscent of the many natural disaster issues we already have. I suggest instead a bureaucratic cock-up leading to the mysterious disappearance of an entire month's worth of grain, with nobody sure where the missing foodstuff is.

That changes the responses of course, but is more satirically critical of planned economies.

[Jutsa]

I suggest instead a bureaucratic cock-up leading to the mysterious disappearance of an entire month's worth of grain, with nobody sure where the missing foodstuff is.

That'd be a great issue! I'm amazed it's not in the game already!
... oh wait *checks* yep nvm

Eh, think there's still a way to dance around that one?

[Leutria]

Maybe you could try something with locusts or a disease wiping out a major crop?

What other things can I think of...early frost, spoilage due to a heat wave or excessive rainfall (rainfall can actually mess things up at several stages of a crop, both too much or too little). Another idea would simply be lower then planned yields then expected (again, could be due to the weather being too dry/wet, not sure you would even have to mention that detail?)

To go with a different direction, maybe it was just a administrative mixup not on the distribution side, but on the production side. Maybe the department in charge forgot to account for population growth, and the oversight has only just been noticed with distribution centres running dry?

I will edit more in here if I think of more.

[Candlewhisper Archive]

I suggest instead a bureaucratic cock-up leading to the mysterious disappearance of an entire month's worth of grain, with nobody sure where the missing foodstuff is.

That'd be a great issue! I'm amazed it's not in the game already!
... oh wait *checks* yep nvm

Eh, think there's still a way to dance around that one?

I'd forgotten that one existed. Ah well.

Even so, there's less bureaucratic cock ups than there are natural disasters. If you frame it so that grain has just disappeared, but don't say why, that could work. Also, maybe make it something other than grain, and emphasise the food shortage rather than the missing stuff.

The Issue: Multiple state warehouses that records say were supposed to be stacked high with sacks of recently harvested potatoes were recently found to be empty, leaving many to speculate about bureaucratic mix-ups, or corrupt black market reselling, or alien potato abduction. Investigations are ongoing, but in the meantime a lot of people are getting hungry.

Feel free to have that.

[Jutsa]

Thank you, CWA.

New draft's up. Very little actually felt like it needed to be changed, funnily enough, though I'm welcome to suggestions proving me wrong.

[Candlewhisper Archive]

Looks good, but too many options for options of this length. I think aim to lose one option altogether. I suggest option 2.

[Jutsa]

Aye, sounds good. Will remove.

[Australian rePublic]

To me, a storm lacks satirical edge, and is too reminiscent of the many natural disaster issues we already have. I suggest instead a bureaucratic cock-up leading to the mysterious disappearance of an entire month's worth of grain, with nobody sure where the missing foodstuff is.

The chocolate ration has increased from 30 grams to 20 grams. Good news, The Ministry of Plenty has increased the chocolate ration from 30 grams to 20 grams

[Fauxia]

To me, a storm lacks satirical edge, and is too reminiscent of the many natural disaster issues we already have. I suggest instead a bureaucratic cock-up leading to the mysterious disappearance of an entire month's worth of grain, with nobody sure where the missing foodstuff is.

The chocolate ration has increased from 30 grams to 20 grams. Good news, The Ministry of Plenty has increased the chocolate ration from 30 grams to 20 grams

DoublePlusGood, that.

[Bears Armed]

To me, a storm lacks satirical edge, and is too reminiscent of the many natural disaster issues we already have. I suggest instead a bureaucratic cock-up leading to the mysterious disappearance of an entire month's worth of grain, with nobody sure where the missing foodstuff is.

The chocolate ration has increased from 30 grams to 20 grams. Good news, The Ministry of Plenty has increased the chocolate ration from 30 grams to 20 grams

The chocolate ration has always been 20 grams.