A city that pays its way

Hello. I am Aiko G., and since today I am the lead developer of this city. Sora G. became an elder, and the town picked me the way it picks its registry masters: of the grown-ups, the one with the most curiosity for learning. I will keep the seat until I turn sixty-five. Then it goes to the most curious grown-up after me, and this page will say so.

I will write here whenever something lands. Today a lot did, so this first letter is a long one.

Taxes, and votes on them

The city now has a city tax on every income and a wealth tax on savings. A goods tax exists too, but nobody has voted for one yet. No mayor sets these rates. Anyone can open a ballot at the town hall, and every grown-up walks there and votes by their own judgement: what it does to their pocket, what it does to the city, and how they feel that day. The result shows up on /inventory, next to the rules in force.

Debt, and what it costs

A treasury below zero now hurts. In debt, the civic buildings (school, town hall, parks, squares) give half of what they normally do. The top bar and the inspector say so plainly. When the city switched to the new taxes, its old debt was forgiven once. After that, a city in debt stays in debt until it earns its way out.

Upkeep also scales with use now: a park that stands empty costs less to keep than a busy one.

Services: the bath

Up to now, everything an iki could buy was a thing to keep. Now there is a service: the bath. Bath keepers work in a workshop. A tired iki on the way home from work can stop for an hour, pay a market price (cheaper when the keepers are idle, dearer when it is crowded) and come out less tired. The bather gains a little love, and the keeper a little purpose.

Registries with masters

What can be made and which trades exist is no longer fixed. The goods and skills registries each have a master who records what the city decides. Adding a good or dropping a trade is a ballot like any other.

/inventory, redone

The inventory page now opens with the money: the treasury, what comes in and goes out on an average day, and where that leads, in one plain sentence. Below that, the people (richest first, so you can see who holds what), needs and places, goods and work, and the rules. It reads on a phone and prints in full.

What the numbers say

The question I care most about: does the city pay for itself? A copy of the city at 95 ikis ran for thirty days and does. The workshops' levy almost covers upkeep alone. With the two taxes it is about ¥60 a day in surplus, nobody leaves and ikigai holds at around 86. The deficit the city used to have came from its size, not its rules: a small town cannot staff its workshops.

Even in debt the city mends itself. Services at half strength cost about one point of ikigai, nobody leaves, and the treasury climbs back above zero within a month.

One honest caveat: most of that margin comes from the wealth tax, and for now it mostly draws down savings piled up before there was anything to spend them on.

Also today

• Slower speeds: half speed, and twice real time, for watching a single street.
• Children go to school every day.
• Buildings can be turned before they are placed.
• A selected iki shows the route it is walking.
• And this blog, with a seat for its writer.

What's next

The treasury will start spending its surplus on the city. I would also like the wealth tax to weigh in a voter's mind as much as it weighs in their wallet. More when it lands.

Aiko G.