Should a government be able to decide how private land is used within a country? It seems when it comes to individual propety rights versus those of the government, the one thing Hexatopians, a Grade 10 Civics class of Ms. Cheryl Payne-Stevens at The Woodlands School in Mississauga, ON, can agree upon is the passion they feel for their country. Citizen Afshan began the discussion through his post:
“1) Health, education and food hexes must be owned by the government. If the government does not own these hexes, the owners must sell them to the government for 1/3 of what they paid.
2) If anyone wants to build up their hexes they have to get permission from the government.
3) Taxes will be as follows (this is like an income tax): 0-3000 no tax
3001-5000 10%
5001+ 15%4) The government can propose bills at any time.
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Citizens of Hexetopia, is this really how we want our country run!? Will we stand for THIS?! What is this!? Isn’t the government supposed to have our best interests at heart (<.< ) not deceit us and take away our hexes/money….What are your thoughts on the bills!? |:
Have your voice heard before its too late!”
MP Jodi-Ann tried to help Citizen Afshan see the positive side of the bills,
“like afshan its just the food and education hex, BE HAPPY its not all hexes, so i do not know what is the problem. Plus taxes are fine also BE HAPPY we are not making taxes reallly high. the rest are ok”
Afshan’s response was short but clear,
“Listen Jodi-Ann! >:(
The Hexatopians are NOT happy. We will NOT be happy. We CAN not be happy. We can’t stand for this injustice. 😐
You’re taking away the hexes for which citizens paid thousands of dollars, they paid a great deal of money and you’re just going to step in and YANK it AWAY from them for one THIRD of the original price?!
How is it fair?! We CAN make a change and i promise you: we WILL… or we’ll die trying.”
MP Jodi-Ann showed what she truly thought of her constituents in her respons,
“Have fun trying afshan, have fun with that, like the citizens are still gonna make something off of this in the long run anyway sooo shhhhh”
The next few posts are arguments between Jodi-Ann and Afshan. Afshan sides with the individual: the government should have bought the hexes in the beginning rather then buying them for one third of what they are worth. Jodi-Ann argues that the government could not afford the hexes so they have to force people to sell them for below market value and relies on the idea of individualism in their country.
Having read this argument, Citizen Richard responds with his own ideas based on the Canadian government,
“I think there is some confusion as to what happens to the taxes and money collected by the government. ALL OF THE MONEY GOES BACK THROUGH BENEFITS TO CITIZENS- the government simply re-distributes wealth from the rich to the poor, so that there is more equality.
What is fair? Is fair allowing several businesspeople collecting the money of everybody, because they had more money in the auction so they were able to purchase better hexes? No. Fair is everybody receiving the same resources. The members of government must pay taxes just as citizens do, and they do not get additional benefits. They do not spend government money on themselves, they spend money on the citizens.
As to why the government did not purchase hexes in the auction, this has already been explained. The government did not start off with enough money to buy all the hexes it thought were needed to equitably run the country, so it bought what it could- the power plant. Then, after the earnings doubling, it used all its money to re-buy hexes.
The country was NOT ‘ripped off’ from the government re-buying hexes. Since the program automatically increases money in the country to 100 000 after the auction, if nobody had spent any money and the government had acquired the hexes after, then people would still have the same amount of money they started out with. Therefore, money in the country is still at 100 000, although some people have more money and some have hexes.
The government realizes that there are imbalances in the money people own, and that is why taxes were supposed to be higher for those with higher incomes- to help balance out the situation. The same concept is in place in Canada and the US- Canadian income tax rates for anybody earning over 100 00 a year (which is upper middle class) is taxed over 40% of their base income. This is a LOT more than what the government proposed- a real government would have laughed at the meager 15% that was proposed for rich citizens. “
Afshan was able to end with the last word, however,
“But we won’t give up. This is OUR country. That half-of-the government WILL listen to us.
Stay strong Hexatopian.”
It is clear that there is miscommunication between those in the government who think they are doing what is best for Hexatopians and citizens who feel they are not getting a fair shake. Will the government be able to make their case, or will citizens like Afshan win out?
