Herman Cain's Tax Plan Brings SimCity to Real Life

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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Herman Cain's Tax Plan Brings SimCity to Real Life


If U.S. Presidential hopeful Herman Cain's "999" tax plan seems familiar, it might be because it's the default tax rate settings in SimCity 4.

Herman Cain has a plan for America. He wants to simplify the tax code with what he calls 999 [http://www.hermancain.com/999plan]: a nine percent flat tax for businesses, a nine percent flat tax for individuals and a nine percent national sales tax. It's simple, it's fair and for some of you, it might seem oddly familiar.

Turn your mind back to 2003 and the release of SimCity 4 [http://www.amazon.com/SimCity-4-Deluxe-Edition-Download/dp/B00457VJ3G/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1318544421&sr=8-1]. Collecting taxes is naturally part of the game - you can't run a city without 'em, after all - and part of the "fun" is finding the right balance between bringing in enough money to keep the streets clean and cops paid without driving your citizens to a tax revolt. And what middle-of-the-road rate did the game use as a default? You guessed it: nine percent commercial, nine percent industrial and nine percent residential. Call it Sim999.

"While we at Maxis and Electronic Arts do not endorse any political candidates or their platforms, it's interesting to see GOP candidate Herman Cain propose a simplified tax system like one we designed for the video game SimCity 4," Maxis Senior Producer Kip Katsarelis told the Huffington Post [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/13/herman-cain-999-sim-city_n_1008952.html].

Is Cain a closet Maxis fan? "Probably not," according to a receptionist at the Ohio Wells Fargo office of Cain adviser Rich Lowrie, who came up with the plan. "I don't think he's much of a game person."

Presumably that means he doesn't know about "weaknesspays," either. Pity.



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KeyMaster45

Gone Gonzo
Jun 16, 2008
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Oh man I logged countless hours on SimCity 4 as a kid, this is a pretty funny observation. Now if only that weaknesspays cheat actually worked in real life.
 

Saucycarpdog

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Sep 30, 2009
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That's how republicans practice running a country. They play SimCity 4.

I kid, I kid. Don't want to turn this into political debate thread.

Anyway, I find this amusing as well. But doesn't 9 percent seem a little high for some people?
 

tacotrainwreck

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Sep 15, 2011
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Unfortunately, there's no cheat codes for free money to augment that tax plan. ;)

And no on-call space invasions... rats...
 

Not G. Ivingname

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Nov 18, 2009
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I think he just using the oldest marketing trick in the book, to use nines to make people think it so much smaller then they think "10%" tax rate is.
 

mjc0961

YOU'RE a pie chart.
Nov 30, 2009
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I hope it's 9 percent flat tax for all individuals with no limit. Tax breaks for the rich are insanely stupid.
 

Shamanic Rhythm

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Dec 6, 2009
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I consider myself ahead of the times because I almost always turned the 'Dirty Industry' tax slider up to about 15%. Beat that, Australia.
 

walrusaurus

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Mar 1, 2011
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Saucycardog said:
Anyway, I find this amusing as well. But doesn't 9 percent seem a little high for some people?
In the context of a flat tax, it is - as maxis said- pretty middle of the road. In the context of how taxes work in america, it is phenomenally low.
 

Mid-Boss

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Jun 16, 2011
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The problem with this is the rich pay far more than 9% and the poor pay far less than 9% with the tax breaks they are given. This plan not only flattens the tax but does away with all tax forgiveness and breaks. So the taxes would be lowered on the rich and raised significantly on the poor.

Republicans hide a lot of messages in rhetoric like this. Fuck anyone who's not straight, male, white, and Christian, but most of all, fuck the poor. They would love to just come out and say this but they need to dupe the people they want to screw over into voting for them because the votes of that richest 1% isn't going to win them any elections.
 

Johnson McGee

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Nov 16, 2009
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Oh come on, everyone knows you need to boost low income tax rates to 20% in order to keep out the undesirables create a fair and balanced tax system to help everyone thrive, yes, that.
 

RipRoaringWaterfowl

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Jun 20, 2011
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The_root_of_all_evil said:

6 Million People In a City.

This is your future, America.
Exactly. Some scientists say that's the way to go. Good idea on the scientist's part, but I like having roads and only one library within walking distance, as much as I like subways as mass transit and future stuff.

Also, already there are cities of millions of people. Just visit the largest, Tokyo. Not counting Yokohama and the other surrounding urban areas, Tokyo proper is the world's largest city. Millions.
 

Dense_Electric

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Jul 29, 2009
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As with most Republicans, he's got decent economic ideas, and if that were all it were about I might even consider voting for him.

Unfortunately, as with most Republicans, his social ideas are backwards as fuck, and therefor I will not be voting for him.

And most democrats are exactly the opposite, so I won't be voting for them either.
 

Vankraken

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Mar 30, 2010
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Flat tax isn't exactly fair when the poor spend most of there money on necessities (food, housing, electricity, water, etc) while for the wealthy the percent of income spent on necessities is a much lower percent. On top of that unless every single tax deduction is removed the wealthy wouldn't have to pay as high a percentage in tax because they can shuffle there money in things to create tax breaks while again your poorer person would be stuck with most of there income going into things that do not generate tax deductions.

Flat Tax is not the idea of simplifying it so everybody pays an equal part so much as its eliminating tax brackets so the rich pay less.
 

Acting like a FOOL

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Jun 7, 2010
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Not G. Ivingname said:
I think he just using the oldest marketing trick in the book, to use nines to make people think it so much smaller then they think "10%" tax rate is.
as of now American citizens pay 23% of their income in taxes then there's taxes on property,exchange etc.
 

ciasteczkowyp

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May 3, 2011
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This guy is quite the moron. "If You're poor or unemployed, it's Your own fault" and yada yada... "if You're not rich, it's Your fault". I mean, this guy's a walking hypocrisy magnet and generator.