Added after 6 minutes
I've added links to my signature; I'll close the contest when everyone has voted, or when I get tired of waiting.
New here? I'm Roha — want a quick tour?
I've added links to my signature; I'll close the contest when everyone has voted, or when I get tired of waiting.
I'm not entirely on board with that; given the current state of affairs, my attempts to play a capitalist country that's supposed to be all nasty on the political arena become, at the very least, irrelevant, because in Actae, almost every country is ready to commit genocide against an entire nation just to get a couple of new tanks (increase defense by two points).
Actually, I've mostly stopped roleplaying.
my attempts to play as a capitalist country that is supposed to be all nasty

And militarism, strictly speaking, is not the same as capitalism.
Well, I didn't claim that. As for the so-called arms race, it has devolved into "choosing options that increase defense stats," even though such an option may not even suit the ideology of the country.
Some Like it Hot; Others Don't
LEGISLATION PENDING
The Issue
A sudden rise in temperatures has sparked a debate over what the government should do to counter global warming, if anything. The environmentalist movement is up-in-arms and has camped outside your residence for three days demanding an end to all toxic emissions.
The Debate
As the crowd at the environmentalist rally shouts "Ban emissions NOW! Ban emissions NOW!", a radical who has actually worked in the real world steps to the podium. "Hush now, folks. Do you realize that a total ban would also require the elimination of all 231 million of us? Our mantra SHOULD be 'Reduce emissions NOW!' We must demand that our government install emission controls on all producers, including manufacturing plants, mining and agricultural operations, and military and civilian vehicles. We may not be able to eliminate all emissions, but we can surely go after the sources."
"We don't need to be too extreme about this, people." suggests Brian Brown, an economist. "To lower emissions, all we need to do is provide an economic incentive not to pollute. By this, I mean put a tax on harmful emissions. This excise tax will serve to encourage the use of cleaner alternative energy sources, while keeping the economy more or less intact and creating a new source of government revenue. Win-wins always sound good to me."
"Whoa, dude! The government is planning to do WHAT?!?" says famous surfer Pete Hanover, "This temperature spike is, like, totally rad. Why would we want to stop it with uncool stuff that, like, makes it too cold for me to surf and like also does some bad stuff to our economy? Sure, there might be some, like, smog and pollution and stuff, but who cares when we could have bigger waves?"
This is the position your government is preparing to adopt.
"You know, I'm really tired of these hippies constantly complaining about the environment," rants your arch-conservative cousin, Elizabeth Steele, "They're the real problem. I say we round up all the tree-huggers and shoot 'em all. Then business can go on as usual without the eco-nazis protesting every new oil refinery."
I'm very curious about the effect of this issue; before this, I tried all the options on other factions, but on the current Ventorum, the third one seems to fit best (strangely enough). I don't even know what it will do. As far as I remember, the first one significantly improved the environment but noticeably worsened the economy (which is logical), the fourth one didn't increase the economy but reduced freedoms, increased defense, and the number of police, but I don't remember what the second one did.
I also have it running right now in Qwasaristan with the third option selected.
23 hours ago: Following new legislation in Steelmen, women earn less than half the salary of men if they can even find a job.