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Old 01-11-2019, 12:15 PM   #101
whswhs
 
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Default Re: Comment my megacorporation

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Originally Posted by Þorkell View Post
What could be termed "the NATO budget" is really money that goes into running joint assets (IOW the HQ in Belgium and stuff like that). NATO has 28 member states and 27 of them have their own military budgets.
Yes. Wikipedia says the US budget for fiscal year 2019 is just under $675 billion. The other NATO powers each spend less, but it's going to add up.
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Old 01-11-2019, 01:59 PM   #102
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After considering the options, playing the political game has come as the cheapest one:

1. Genesis will raise 2 billion dollars to present 2 presidential candidates (about the same as other candidates).
2. Genesis will raise 4 billion dollars to present 200 senate candidates (x4 of the total spending of other parties).
3. Genesis will raise 27 billion dollars to present 1305 candidates for seats in House of Representatives (x15 of the total spending of other parties).

Total Cost: 33 billion dollars.

Results after running the numbers:

House of Representatives:
Seats held by the Genesis Party: 300
Seats held by the Democratic Party: 65
Seats held by the Republican Party: 61
Seats held by third Party: 9

Senate:
Seats held by the Genesis Party: 69
Seats held by the Democratic Party: 15
Seats held by the Republican Party: 14
Seats held by third Party: 2

The presidential elections are won with about 70% of votes.

Last edited by Alonsua; 01-11-2019 at 02:15 PM.
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Old 01-11-2019, 02:09 PM   #103
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Default Re: Comment my megacorporation

The biggest problem I see with the majority of these threads is that you’re set on what you’ve written and now just need to get people to accept it as rational. You don’t want feedback, you want people to help file off the rough edges. But, when we start pointing out that the entire thing is rough-edges, and you should really re-think it from the ground up, you get defensive.

This megacorp isn’t plausible in a TL8 world. Maybe a (TL8^+Comic Book)×Conspiracy-theories-are-all-real reality. Even in San Francisco.

As others have pointed out, it would have been dealt with long ago the moment the governments realized it was illegally researching any form of military technology. Without pre-existing ultratech facilities, gear and allies, they would have been wiped out and all of their assets absorbed by whichever government had jurisdiction over them.

The best way to fix it is to not have it be a megacorporation as was suggested. Megavillains know if you keep all your eggs in one basket, it’s easier to lose that basket. I have little trouble seeing a tight-knit group of super villains gathering together to control a dozen corporations to make their schemes a reality.

No, existing, corporation could even begin to approach it to do any damage to it. Only national governments could. And they wouldn’t have let it get formed in the first place, removing the need for it to be destroyed at a later date.

And . . . you don't know much about American voters. Many of them vote party line and don't care about advertising. It would be harder than you think to buy that much of Congress. If it were that easy, Apple would have done it years ago, they have $285 billion sitting in their cash pile. If buying the US Government were that easy, they would have done it by now. If it would only cost them $33 billion, they'd save $5 billion from the $38 billion they're expected to pay in taxes. They'd certainly have done it.
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Old 01-11-2019, 02:19 PM   #104
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And . . . you don't know much about American voters. Many of them vote party line and don't care about advertising. It would be harder than you think to buy that much of Congress. If it were that easy, Apple would have done it years ago, they have $285 billion sitting in their cash pile. If buying the US Government were that easy, they would have done it by now. If it would only cost them $33 billion, they'd save $5 billion from the $38 billion they're expected to pay in taxes. They'd certainly have done it.
I am just using the game rules, which are meant to exist in order to treat with this kind of stuff. The main objective of this thread is to identify the implausibilities to correct them, as we are doing, given that now with the political system taken over by puppets Genesis will be able to enact and revoke laws according to its needs.

Last edited by Alonsua; 01-11-2019 at 02:23 PM.
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Old 01-11-2019, 02:31 PM   #105
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Default Re: Comment my megacorporation

Quote:
Originally Posted by Alonsua View Post
After considering the options, playing the political game has come as the cheapest one:

1. Genesis will raise 2 billion dollars to present 2 presidential candidates (about the same as other candidates).
2. Genesis will raise 4 billion dollars to present 200 senate candidates (x4 of the total spending of other parties).
3. Genesis will raise 27 billion dollars to present 1305 candidates for seats in House of Representatives (x15 of the total spending of other parties).

Total Cost: 33 billion dollars.

Results after running the numbers:

House of Representatives:
Seats held by the Genesis Party: 300
Seats held by the Democratic Party: 65
Seats held by the Republican Party: 61
Seats held by third Party: 9

Senate:
Seats held by the Genesis Party: 69
Seats held by the Democratic Party: 15
Seats held by the Republican Party: 14
Seats held by third Party: 2

The presidential elections are won with about 70% of votes.
Of course none of that is going to address the (im)plausibility of the history, scale, strategy, corporate structure, business plan, or hopes for secrecy of Genesis in the first place. Actually, I can't really see what this political game is supposed to achieve at all, and never mind that spending money is not the sole determinant of election success.
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Old 01-11-2019, 02:31 PM   #106
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Default Re: Comment my megacorporation

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Originally Posted by Alonsua View Post
I am just using the game rules, which are meant to exist in order to treat with this kind of stuff. The main objective of this thread is to identify the implausibilities to correct them, as we are doing, given that now with the political system taken over by puppets Genesis will be able to enact and revoke laws according to its needs.
The thing is, there are two different stances you can take:

1. The rules say this happens, so it can happen in my campaign, and it's realistic for it to do so.

2. The rules say this happens; is it actually plausible for it to happen, or are the rules producing unrealistic results?

You present your writeups as if your stance were 2, but from your reactions it often seems as if your actual stance were 1. For example, in an earlier remark, you were asked, "How can X happen?" and you answered that it's a Quick Contest. Well, that's a valid question about game mechanics, but it only explains how X can happen realistically if you accept it as axiomatic that the game rules produce realistic outcomes.

So what is your actual approach?
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Old 01-11-2019, 02:32 PM   #107
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Originally Posted by Alonsua View Post
I am just using the game rules, which are meant to exist in order to treat with this kind of stuff. The main objective of this thread is to identify the implausibilities to correct them, as we are doing, given that now with the political system taken over by puppets Genesis will be able to enact and revoke laws according to its needs.
Actually, not in the United States. We have this thing called the Supreme Court.
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Old 01-11-2019, 02:35 PM   #108
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Originally Posted by whswhs View Post
The thing is, there are two different stances you can take:

1. The rules say this happens, so it can happen in my campaign, and it's realistic for it to do so.

2. The rules say this happens; is it actually plausible for it to happen, or are the rules producing unrealistic results?

You present your writeups as if your stance were 2, but from your reactions it often seems as if your actual stance were 1. For example, in an earlier remark, you were asked, "How can X happen?" and you answered that it's a Quick Contest. Well, that's a valid question about game mechanics, but it only explains how X can happen realistically if you accept it as axiomatic that the game rules produce realistic outcomes.

So what is your actual approach?
If Alonsua was not the GM, I would be inclined to think these are grand scale exercises in rules-lawyering.

Last edited by Donny Brook; 01-11-2019 at 02:38 PM.
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Old 01-11-2019, 02:35 PM   #109
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Default Re: Comment my megacorporation

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Originally Posted by Alonsua View Post
I am just using the game rules, which are meant to exist in order to treat with this kind of stuff. The main objective of this thread is to identify the implausibilities to correct them, as we are doing, given that now with the political system taken over by puppets Genesis will be able to enact and revoke laws according to its needs.
The Democratic and Republican Parties would use their influence over state governments to get the Genesis Party blocked from the ballot, so it would never happen. There are also laws that prevent such campaign spending by outsiders, even nowadays, which the Democratic and Republican Parties would gleefully use to destroy the Genesis Party and its contributors. The candidates would be arrested, the contributors would be arrested, and the corporations would be dissolved (with their assets seized by the federal government).
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Old 01-11-2019, 02:38 PM   #110
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Yeah, if there are election rules somewhere in GURPS that say it's that easy to introduce a new party and have it take power, those rules are bonkers!
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