Politician Archive
Thread: registration for voting needed instead of declared residence
I live with my husband in America. We BOTH pay income taxes, but last time I checked, we only paid property taxes once, not twice, because for some strange reason married people live in the same house.
Another distinction from real life: Marriage in real life is a GREAT benefit to both people, in SWG it is not. In fact, I would say a lot of times, people with lower income almost HAVE to be married, just to make ends meet, in real life.
In SWG this is not the case. Marriage really has no benefit, other than roleplay purposes, and to "show off" that you have your marriage box checked. Marriage should NEVER become a necessity in SWG, because most don't want to bother with it, and besides, I think it should MEAN something when two people do it (from a roleplaying perspective). If you gave married SWG citizens a "tax break" then everyone would just go get married to a random person, and never talk to that person again, just to get the tax break.
Mkappus wrote:
A 2 lot sacrfice to join a city is not that big of a deal. Without having declared residences there are way too many griefing possibilities.
If you can give me a good argument that giving up 2 lots is a burden on people to have a house, I would maybe consider some kind of registration process.
2 lots = 2 heavy harvestors pumping out 100s of materials an hour
or
2 lots = 2 factories cranking out wears for vendors or subcomponents to bigger items
They will either have to hand out gobs of cash for something they could do themself or limit their production (cutting into sales) on their goods because of the loss of factories producing items. And thenpay the maintenance fees on the house they only need for citizenship.
It seems to me the solution of requiring permission from the mayor to be declared a citizen of the city would cut back griefers. If it didn't, then it's the mayor's fault and he/she gets outted next election.
Perhaps you missed the whole discussionabout Crafters not wanting to give up lots for a house....
I think a Great solution would simply to allow 1-2 people to declare in a small house, 1-3 in a medium house, 1-4 people to declare in a Large house, and 1-6 people to declare in a PA hall (or maybe equal to the number of lots the building takes up). To Declare at the building requires having Admin access for the entire voting week prior and must retain admin access throughout the voting week. For all those complaining about they are free loading... well the Maint gets paid, how the residents decide to split up the costs,is up to them. aswell as the fact that they are still liable for the income tax (a flat rate for all citizens) as well as property tax on all their harvestors/ factories in the area and the sales taxes on all their vendors. this would also ease the spacing needs on a starting city allowing for placement of gardens even in a small village instead of endless grids of small houses to maximize city space
also I hear merchants will possibly be able to declare their residence in the new Merchant tents which require a 3x3 footprint and alloy the merchant to place vendors, all for just 1 lot, much better than having people come into your friends house to buy your wares..
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Now I have been reading through the Politician Boards lately, and one of the Threads asks about what Buildings Politician would like to see in the game. One of them is condos. Where multiple players can pay a price to have a small amount of space, AND declare residency. If you guy want condo's why are you so against letting people declare residency in someone else's home. IRL I have a basement, that has two rooms, a bathroom, and a living room. I charge people money every month to live downstairs. Why, in SWG can you not do the same. You keep saying that taxes are a problem, that the other person will not be able to pay taxes on property. Well, then have it scale based upon the amount of declared residents. In a small house have the capacity be two residence. If there is one resident, then charge the 32 cr/hr, if there are two, then charge 48 cr/hr. Believe me the owner will want to have the second resident to help out in paying the maint. and also is kind of an incintive for non-crafter players to find crafters to sell goods out of their house and declare residency. Who wouldn't like to have their maint. reduced from 32 cr/hr to 24 cr/hr. Or keep it, 32 for one resident, 64 for two residents, it matters not, it resolves this issue, and the issue with only one person paying taxes, in addition, its another step closer to condos.
"You wouldn't want another country voting in your president... Would you?"
Well...That might actually yield better results. 
Here is an Idea. How about a renter's tax? The owner of the house has to pay for maintnence + property tax to beallowed to live in the city. How about letting 1 extra person declare in a small, 2 in a medium, and 3 in a large. These people are listed as renters and inorder to remain residents they have to pay rent that covers their share of the tax. No rent = no taxes= eviction=no vote. The rent cost is = to the tax plus what ever the owner/land lord wishes to charge. The land lord can charge 0 if they want or as much as they want. The renter has the option to leave and rent from someone else if rent is too high. This allows for non landowners to vote and be part of the city just like renters in real life. But the renters are also a productive part of the city by paying the same taxes as anyone else. (This could also lead to new buildings for Arcitechs to build such as Apartment buildings that can house 10+ people and a new Way of making money as a landlord class or realtor.)
The last part was secondary. The primary point was the 1st stuff
Laotan2 wrote:
ok, so as i'm learning more about how elections will work, i'm rather dismayed to see that only people who own houses are going to be able to vote. societies are never nor should they ever reflect the landowners without also taking into account the rest of the populace.
instead of going through the trouble of having different political systems (a la civilization 3) i think there should be a different registration system for voters. instead of it being anyone with a declared residence, there should be the ability for a player to register with a city hall. you could only register with one city hall, and then that is the riding in which you vote. that way it more closely reflects a real society, in which not just the landowning class is able to vote.
thoughts?
This was probably already posted, but in case it wasn't. This method would open up easy adn cheap griefing... THere would be nothing to stop one guild taking over city after city by sheer numbers, destroying the city hall once they elect their mayor etc....
What about a couples who are married and share the same house.
I'm married and I share a house with my husband, just like a normal RL family.
In RL Both husband and wife can vote, even though the Husband may be the only one who pays the property tax. Also the wife pays income taxes if she works.
Maybe 2 people could claim a house as residence.
As of right now, our house belongs to my husband, but it is still our house.
He bought it, and placed in on a plot of land, but if you ask him who bought 90% of the furniture and items in our house he would tell you I did.
I don't see a problem with letting married couples share the claim on the Residency.
1 House - 1 Married Couple = 2 votes (because both can declare thier house as a residence)
Long Live the Emperor "the people need representation regardless of their accomodation".
Agreed. Provided they have one. Not having accommodation at all is NOT to grant voting rights. Taxpayers get the votes, period.