in todays world, reltionships with other countries is extremly vital to the success of nations, given the value of trade in todays economy. Or example, china used to be very dependent on the UNited States for resources that they could not supply themselves, and the united states returned the favor by importing alot of resources from China. But in recent years the deoendency of china on the U.S has slowly decreased. China has found other tradepartners with the rest of the world and that is slowly making the U.S. dependent on China, and we as a country want it to be more of an even balance. In a recent cnn article, the Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said that "China is transitioning from a land economy to a market-driven economy," and he added that working toward better realtions is "absolutely vital" to the sucess of not only the U.S. but hte entire world because of the growth and rise of Chnia's overwhelming economy.
so in relation to the video game, Civilization 4, this shows me that i can not become too dependent on one country as my main tradesource because if they fall, then i fall, i need ot have an equal balance of a variety of trade partners that way it can not come back to haunt me later in the game. i also can not allow for one civilization, unless it is mine, to become so powerful that they can control everyone else in the trade market.
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Monday, April 9, 2007
So since i am virtually out of ideas to talk about the game, Civilization IV, my father sent me a recent funny e-mail about the tax system in America and how it affects every level of the social system.
An explanation of our tax system (and tax cuts) in layman terms. *****
Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all tencomes to $100.If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go somethinglike this:The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.The eighth would pay $12.The ninth would pay $18.The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.
So, that's what they decided to do.The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with thearrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve.
"Since you areall such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of yourdaily beer by $20."
Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so thefirst four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But whatabout the other six men - the paying customers?How could they divide the $20 windfall such that that everyone would get his 'fairshare?' They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if theysubtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixthman would each end up being paid to drink his beer.
So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's billby roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts eachshould pay.And so:The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).
The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).Each of the six was better off than before.
And the first four continued todrink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to comparetheir savings."I only got a dollar out of the $20," declared the sixth man.
He pointedto the tenth man," but he got $10!""Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. " I only saved a dollar,too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than me""That's true" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $10 back when Igot only two?
The wealthy get all the breaks""Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison. "We didn't getanything at all. The system exploits the poor"The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.
The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine satdown and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, theydiscovered something important. They didn't have enough money between allof them for even half of the bill!And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefitfrom a tax reduction.
Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, andthey just may not show up anymore.
In fact, they might start drinkingoverseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.
I realize that it is somewhat long, but it puts the complaints and the tax system into a way in which the common, normal man can understand it. This e-mail may not b e real but it sure is realalistic when it talks about exploiting the poor and giving benefits to the rich. This is sytem, works but just not in the minds of the poor. If i could put a tax system into the game, and since the game does not specify what kind of system we can choose from, i would put this system into place in my game hwen playing civlizations, because it works, and it works well when people do not complain. since i am the ruler of my city, i would put this system, or one extremly similar to it into effect. the worker may rebel or complain, but the they would go hungry, so they would eventually come back, and it would all work itself out.
An explanation of our tax system (and tax cuts) in layman terms. *****
Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all tencomes to $100.If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go somethinglike this:The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.The eighth would pay $12.The ninth would pay $18.The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.
So, that's what they decided to do.The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with thearrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve.
"Since you areall such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of yourdaily beer by $20."
Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so thefirst four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But whatabout the other six men - the paying customers?How could they divide the $20 windfall such that that everyone would get his 'fairshare?' They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if theysubtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixthman would each end up being paid to drink his beer.
So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's billby roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts eachshould pay.And so:The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).
The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).Each of the six was better off than before.
And the first four continued todrink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to comparetheir savings."I only got a dollar out of the $20," declared the sixth man.
He pointedto the tenth man," but he got $10!""Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. " I only saved a dollar,too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than me""That's true" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $10 back when Igot only two?
The wealthy get all the breaks""Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison. "We didn't getanything at all. The system exploits the poor"The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.
The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine satdown and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, theydiscovered something important. They didn't have enough money between allof them for even half of the bill!And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefitfrom a tax reduction.
Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, andthey just may not show up anymore.
In fact, they might start drinkingoverseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.
I realize that it is somewhat long, but it puts the complaints and the tax system into a way in which the common, normal man can understand it. This e-mail may not b e real but it sure is realalistic when it talks about exploiting the poor and giving benefits to the rich. This is sytem, works but just not in the minds of the poor. If i could put a tax system into the game, and since the game does not specify what kind of system we can choose from, i would put this system into place in my game hwen playing civlizations, because it works, and it works well when people do not complain. since i am the ruler of my city, i would put this system, or one extremly similar to it into effect. the worker may rebel or complain, but the they would go hungry, so they would eventually come back, and it would all work itself out.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Trading
so im getting pretty fed up with the game, it is becomming more of a burden than anything, so im trying new stratigies no matter how stupid they might seem. so for the past week and a half or so, i have used two opposite stratigies, first i didnt trade at all, and second, all i did was trade. when i did not trade at all, my civilization crumbled because i grew at a rapid pace but my people could not sustain and produce enough food for all of my people, so instead of trading, i chose to see if my workers would pick up the pace to be able to deal with the shortage, but they couldn't and because of that i lost rather quickly. i could think of or find a civilization that this has happened to. i have found civilizations that have crumbled due to lack of food and man power, but that was because they were not given the choice of trading. to either trade or die, i would think that if that wasn't a hypothetical situation then it would be an easy choice. When all i did was trade i succeeded pretty well, i have not finished that game, simply because, like i said earlier, i got bored. but i am currently trading domestic animals, such as sheep and horses, along with gold for excess food, crops, and weapons. this strategy works and has been used in the real world. take China or Mexico for example; china trades just about everything they make and they make just about everything, and look at their economy, they will soon be the number one in the world. and Mexico has been trading (illegally) labor and corn, and because of our free trade agreement it is easy to trade with them. so my little test was common sense, but I'm having trouble finding things to write about, so my advice trade.
Sunday, March 4, 2007
Technology
since i have been playing this alot, my roomoate as also taken interest in the game and he told me about a stratagy that i guess i simply overlooked, and it is to build up your technology, so i tried it. i take as many techological advances as a can, everything from weapons, to irrigation, to railroads, by doing this you get ahead of all the other cultures. by doing this you dont have to build up your army as much because you have better technology, which result in better weaonps. it is very similar to the mvie we watched in class, where the spainards overtook the myan city. the myans definitly outnumbered the spainards, but the spainards, weapons, including horses were superior to that of the myan's and the spainards won. so when im playing i think of this example where i second guess my decesion to make another worker as opposed to scout, or archer. so as your technology advances, your society is becomming more advanced and happier as well. and when you city is happy, that is a good sign. in the modern era as well, being ahead of the other civlizations is good, becuase it helps you both economically and militarily. in todays society, China is probably the most technoloically advanced country in the world. Their military is not extremly strong, but they have the weapons to back the small man power up. also their economy is one of the strongest in the world, if not the strongest already. China aslo has a billion people, and it is not toally crazy because of their early advances in technology.
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Resources
In order to truly have the best and most productive civilization, you need to be able to build your cities in the proper place. by the proper place i mean near the right resources, and if you have made the mistake of building the cities far away from the vital resources such as iron, rubber and oil, and coal, then you need to build roads as soon as possible to a place that has those resources readily availble. Once you get the roads put in place, the next step are the railroads (which are a lifesaver). The first resouce that you need to find, and have a surplus of is iron. By finding and learning how to use iron, it helps both military advancement/success and defense. The next essential resouce that is needed is coal. if you can find coal then you are well on your way to getting railroads, which will allow you to take contorl of the game much faster. The last crucial resources that are nice to have are rubber and oil because they are important later in the game, once you have reached the space age. Oil allows everything to move, and to move quicker because of motor vechicles. but those vechicles can not movie without the rubber wheels, that is why i mentioned oil and rubber togehter. The biggest advancement that i feel that helped me the most, was getting the technology to get the railroads built and working. by having railroads it helps with everything: growth, food, military, defense, and im sure there are more. All of these resources are nice to have, but the most impornat, by far is food and water supply. None of the other resources can be found if there is not and excess amount of both food and water in all of your cities and colonies. If these resources are not found, then the next best thing is to trade.
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Protection
So while i was radily expanding, i realized that i was not protecting my new cites boarders, and i was leaving them extremly vanerable and open to attack. So after i waged war on three people, which by the way is not a good idea, and lost, i started a new game and i am trying to balance the amount of settlers i create with the same amount of soliders. and i create a variety of the soliders, (axemen, archers, ect.) im not sure if that makes a differnece, but i do it anyway. i want to grow and take over as much land as possible, but i have learned that i can not just focus on expand but also protecting. Wars are not the only problems that you need protection for. you also have to watch out for wandering barbarians that can easily destroy a town or small city. so a standing army and ample protection is vital in sucess to the game. You dont really have to protect your main city as much as the cities near the boarders. Everytime i start a new city now, i put more than enough soliders there to defend it. I also make scouts to put near my boarders, to protect and alert my smaller cities when enimies are trying to attack. i enjoy growing extremly fast but i have learned that, that is not a good idea if i dont have a big enough army because i will just loose the game because i can not defend my boarders or my cities. i have also learned that protection is extremly important in the later and more modern times, because of the advancement in weapons and technology. Enimes can attack you from anywhere on in the modern times. In the ancient times, you were warned when the enemy was moving and getting close so you at least had a little bit of time to create a few more soliders to protect your cities.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
First Post
I feel that the game itsself is confusing but that is because I do not play video games. I am slowly getting the hang of it.
The strategy that I found to work the best so far, was to expand as fast as possible, to create as many cities with as many settelers as possible. the best culture to be, is the INdians becuse they are the fastest workers. My reason for this is that I do not believe that I will be attacked by other civilizations this early in the game, therefore I want to expand and conquor as much as possible as quickly as possible. I also try to build boats, therefore I can retreive even more land through the water. Once I feel that I have enough cities and civilians, I will build my army. I realize that I am leaving my cities vunerable to attack but i feel that growth is important and should take advantage of other cities begining as well by expanding. I am in the year 13975 BC and i have 6 cities.
I also feel that the more people i have, the more i can build, reserch and explore. i do realize that more food is needed, but there are more people to produce and find food, so that is not a big deal, because i will have more food than needed. By having more people i not only get to expand but i also become more advanced because i have more workers, fighters, and soon i will be at the point of specilization, which will hopefully allow my civilization to take over and dominate the other weaker civilizations, when the time comes.
The strategy that I found to work the best so far, was to expand as fast as possible, to create as many cities with as many settelers as possible. the best culture to be, is the INdians becuse they are the fastest workers. My reason for this is that I do not believe that I will be attacked by other civilizations this early in the game, therefore I want to expand and conquor as much as possible as quickly as possible. I also try to build boats, therefore I can retreive even more land through the water. Once I feel that I have enough cities and civilians, I will build my army. I realize that I am leaving my cities vunerable to attack but i feel that growth is important and should take advantage of other cities begining as well by expanding. I am in the year 13975 BC and i have 6 cities.
I also feel that the more people i have, the more i can build, reserch and explore. i do realize that more food is needed, but there are more people to produce and find food, so that is not a big deal, because i will have more food than needed. By having more people i not only get to expand but i also become more advanced because i have more workers, fighters, and soon i will be at the point of specilization, which will hopefully allow my civilization to take over and dominate the other weaker civilizations, when the time comes.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
