fandomhigh | Nation Building and the Origin of Government, Period 5, Class 1, Thursday, 1-6

"Welcome to class," she said, flipping her files shut and glancing around the room. "My name is Assistant District Attorney Alexandra Cabot. You can call me Alex, or if you'd rather, Miss Cabot is fine. This class is called Nation Building and the Origin of Government."

"I had a whole detailed explanation for what I'd like to do with this class, what the topic means to me, and how we should think about government. I was going to start today by reading that off to all of you, but I've just changed my mind." She straightened up, walking briskly over to the chalkboard and drawing a squarish shape on it. "Instead, today we're going to dive in with a thought experiment. We'll deal with technicalities later on."

She turned around and tapped her knuckles on the board, in the center of the shape. "Congratulations," she said. "This is a country, and it has just been entrusted -- in its entirety -- to you. It's a decent size, and it even comes with its own population. However, there is absolutely no civic infrastructure. There are businesses, but all of those are privately run. What I'm trying to say is that there is no government whatsoever. No publicly funded services, no mayors or governors, and no organization. Except, of course, for you.

"In other words, you're running the show. You can declare yourself Grand High Emperor for Life, or El Jefe, or whatever strikes your fancy. You can rename the capital city after yourself. You can blow the whole of the country's limited funds on hiring harem girls or cabana boys to dance for you. You can even paint yourself naked and run down the street.

"Before you get carried away, I'd like to point out that doing the above won't leave you much time until someone more sensible assassinates you and does all of the things you were supposed to be doing. So let's take it as a given that you decide to be a responsible leader who gives a damn about your constituents. Which is good, because they're going to need a lot from you." She dusted her hands off. "So. What's first? I'd like you to tell me what your number one priority is, and why."

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"So you'd gather information on the resources," Alex nodded. "Would you also be looking for those places where private business can fail? If everything in this country is privatized, then the least fortunate won't have a great deal available to them."

"Well, yeah," Warren replied, smiling faintly. "I imagine there have been a lot of private businesses coming and going over the years before I ever arrived, and the ones that started off wealthy in the first place were probably the ones that stood a higher chance of success. I'm not going to swoop in and proclaim to be God's gift to the small business owner, but I can see a lot of potential lost, if people don't have the means to secure a foothold to start. If the resources were available, a country could benefit a great deal from helping the right sorts of companies get a foot in the door, or to direct a faltering business owner to a location where they might have higher demand for their services. Or..."

He tilted his head a little.

"I suppose from there, it would become a matter of looking at foreign policy, and on exports. Maybe there isn't a demand for what the failing businesses can provide within my country's borders, but elsewhere? Something that we might consider to be a pest crop or just plain weird might sell big in... Japan, or something."

Japan seemed to like a lot of things that the people of America (Or Um) generally wouldn't.

"That's a very interesting point you raise," Alex said, nodding again. "Small businesses are often supported by government, at least in their fledgling states. Many of them fail, but those that do well create jobs and opportunities in such numbers so as to make the investment worthwhile."

She shrugged, gesturing lightly with one hand. "Of course, once we begin exporting, we also start importing. What happens when, for example, Japan can make something much cheaper than your own industries or businesses?"

Warren furrowed his eyebrows at that one, thoughtfully.

"From a business standpoint, outsourcing production of cheaper parts and products to Japan would be my gut instinct," he admitted. "But from a government standpoint, that would mean throwing away much-needed employment for the citizens of my own nation, and if we're just getting a foothold in business in the first place, that's something we can't really afford to do. But if my country has the resources, and business owners were willing to work with the government to adapt, I don't see why there couldn't be some sort of program put into place to help companies make a switch, to expand into either improving the quality of their current product, or else making something that there's still a demand for, that they can't make in... you know. Japan."

"Outsourcing is a tricky matter," Alex agreed. "From a governmental standpoint, maybe we can incentivize the behaviors we'd like to encourage. Give business owners exemptions or breaks if they keep production in our country, or reward customers for buying domestic. Of course, that raises a new set of questions, which is, how much influence do we want the government to have, with business?"

"I think that depends on a lot of different factors," Warren mused. "I mean, what the businesses are in the first place, for starters. Like I said, the government has their little finger in the affairs of Worthington Labs pretty much all the time, but I don't think they'd take as much interest in a company that makes, like, shoelaces."

He pursed his lips a little, and then added, "And I'd have to be careful to not look like I'm taking away too much of a business owner's control, either. I think I'd sooner stick to offering incentives, so long as there's a good chance that we'll see a benefit from them somewhere down the road, instead of imposing regulations all over the place and just generally ticking people off."

Nation Building and the Origin of Government, Period 5, Class 1, Thursday, 1-6

Re: Discussion: Your First Priority - NAT01

Re: Discussion: Your First Priority - NAT01

Re: Discussion: Your First Priority - NAT01

Re: Discussion: Your First Priority - NAT01

Re: Discussion: Your First Priority - NAT01

Re: Discussion: Your First Priority - NAT01