So, how great is Kromm anyway?

[Anders]

I have PM:ed Shadlyn. She says that e23 is not currently set up for this, but that she will contact the appropriate parties.

Hail KROMM!

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Asta Kask

I have PM:ed Shadlyn. She says that e23 is not currently set up for this, but that she will contact the appropriate parties.

Hail KROMM!

All hail KROMM!

We must persuade the faithful to give generously.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Agemegos

It isn't the sane who condone such arrangements, it is the envious and spiteful.

Who may be eminently sane, just not the kind of people I want to associate with.

Originally Posted by Agemegos

Yes. A merely greedy government would always ensure that the marginal tax rate remained below 100% to maintain the incentive to earn. A tax rate above 100% doesn't actually collect any revenue, since people are careful to stop earning at the income that attracts a 100% marginal rate.

Taxes above 100% are the result either of carelessness (eg. allowing a 12.5% state income tax to co-exist with a 95% top federal income tax rate, or levying an extra 1% on taxable income to fund a compulsory gun buy-back when the top marginal rate is 98% and you already have a 1.9% Medicare Levy), or of spite and envy.

Ah, but it is the voters (and many politicians) who are spiteful, envious and greedy. The government is merely incompetent. ;)

Originally Posted by Agemegos

You can consider spite and envy to be insanities if you like. I do.

To the extent that they are irrational, they are insanities. However, many forms of spite are rational, such as that endeavouring to make those more successful than you pay a penalty for it which will be used to compensate you for being not successful.

This is behaviour that I personally regard as immoral, but it is rational, in the same way that it is rational to steal if you are sure that no penalty will attach to it.

Originally Posted by Agemegos

KROMM meanwhile is neither careless, nor spiteful, nor envious. He rules are diligently playtested. Rather that enviously rejoicing in our discomfiture, he wants and helps us to have fun.

This brings up the hilarious image of a government playtesting new taxes.

"We've playtested it pretty thoroughly and it was a design goal from day one that the average tax payer could figure out the tax form without using a scientific calculator and the services of a certified public accountant. After conferring with our playtesters, we also decided to go with additive modifiers as the main rule. We'll keep proper math as an optional rule."

Originally Posted by Agemegos

The more fun we have, the more we praise KROMM!

ALL HAIL KING KROMM!!!

Originally Posted by Agemegos

Unless it is badwrongfun, of course.

Yeah, if we have BadWrongFun we'll end up in the World of Darkness. ;)

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Þorkell

I was working from the assumption that "sane political party" is a contradiction in terms, or failing that a myth.

Don't forget that we live in the mythical land of Iceland, where honey drips from every tree and no more than half the voters are irrational.

Our current government may have done some things wrong, but they've also done more things right than any government I can think of in history.

Originally Posted by Þorkell

All hail KROMM!

With His blessings and Benevolent Spirit. Amen.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Ghostdancer

I hate politics...

I would hate the day-to-day nonsense of the political process, but I actually find the business of government somewhat intriguing. The decisions about the rights and duties of people are difficult, but the challenge of making right decisions appeals to me.

However, in order to get to a position where you make such decisions, you have to spend a very long time engaged in tasks that don't actually have anything to do with making the right decisions. You have to convince at least 50+% of the people that you'd be good at it and their criteria doesn't have to be rational.

It's like trying to teach a class on ethics to a room made up of pre-teens, teens, collage kids and graduate students; all of which want different things out of the class and the majority of which can decide to throw you out whenever they please. Instead of doing your job, most of your time has to be devoted to doling out free candy and CCGs, keeping up with the "hip" lingo, making friends with the cliques in your class and placating those who feel left out.

It's no wonder Churchill called it the worst form of governance, apart from all the others.

Originally Posted by Ghostdancer

but I have political views...for god sake someone kill me...

Everyone has political views, even if those views are only "I'd like to live in peace with my family and one day save up enough money to travel Europe/buy a summer home/send my kid to collage/etc."

Originally Posted by Ghostdancer

so what are they like? What do the common folk think of them and what do you think of them?

Slightly over 40% of the people in Iceland are broadly in favour. Slightly under 40% are violently opposed.

The differences between parties in Iceland are actually negliable. Everyone stands for pretty much the same things. There is a radical environmental party which pretends to be socialist, but it mostly appeals to kids who don't know any better. The largest parties have manifestos you'd be hard pressed to tell apart.

The difference, at least to me, is that the Independence Party has shown that they both mean most of their slogans and have the ability to carry out their promises.

Politics might be a rather silly game, but that doesn't change the fact that for the last twelve years, my country has gone from being deep in depth and caught in a skyrocketing inflation to being economically healthier than it has ever been before. This has happened while unemployment (traditionally linked to lower inflation numbers) has gone radically down and state interference in most aspects of our lives has gone down without any appreciable loss of servivces.

Results talk.

I don't listen to arguments that essentially boil down to: "It's unhealthy for any one party to be in power so long. It's time for a change."

I say as long as they're doing good, they should continue.

Football managers don't take star players out of their team just because others deserve a chance. They keep playing them as long as they keep delivering.

[elShoggotho]

Originally Posted by Spudzill

I would absolutely HAVE to visit then, though my income be small, I will rely upon my faith in Kromm to carry me through . May it please KROMM.

It is not KROMM's way to rush anything. Everything will happen as intended, sometimes accompanied by an errata, but always at least 99 percent accurate. Hail our lord KROMM. Hail him without end!

[elShoggotho]

Icelander, you provide me with nice loopholes to turn this thread into another whaling thread, but I will resist, for the glory of KROMM.

[Christopher R. Rice]

I just want to interject that I had a huge campaign issue yesterday I Pmed Kromm and with 10 minutes he had already given me a reply. You just can't find this sort of thing with other RPG's...every time this happens and he runs to the rescue I am amazed and must tell everyone. Sean Punch you are one helluva guy, you get Kudo's buddy (not the candy type) you deserve every good thing anyone ever says about you. (but not the zombies I have heard about....:P)

anyways...

HAIL KROMM

Ghostdancer

[Kromm]

Dude, I'd kill to have a few zombies. No, wait, that doesn't sound right . . .

[Christopher R. Rice]

See Kromm controls the zombies....I have heard fourth hand horror stories about you games and the undead...

Ghostdancer