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Edited by Spawn: 1/28/2016 1:46:17 AM
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Bernie Sanders' Economic Policy explained in Destiny Terms

Bernie Sanders' campaign is built on what he and many others call wealth inequality, his entire economic policy is built on addressing this "issue". In an effort to promote understanding of his widely popular policies I will now explain them and how they work within the scope of Destiny. Let's begin.. Commander Zavala's term is finished and elections are in process to select a new commander of the Vanguard. The Speaker tried running but was deemed "out of touch and too old" for this young generation of guardians. In a close election between Bernie Sanders and Cayde-6, Cayde-6's past habits of boozing and womanizing come out after a string of sexual harassment accusations from Petra Venj and Amanda Holliday. Bernie Sanders ends up pulling ahead and winning after this information becomes public. Sweeperbot mounts an unsuccessful 3rd party campaign. Bernie Sanders is sworn in as Commander of the Vanguard and vows to tackle the problem of wealth inequality among Guardians. Wealth in Destiny consists of a combination of exotics, god-roll legendaries, strange coins, and light level (among other things). Let's face it some guardians are much wealthier than others! Bernie vows to fight this wealth inequality "these 1-percenters have way too much wealth, why does a guardian need a last word, a black spindle, and a chaperone? They can't even equip all of them at once!" Bernie goes on to say "I've seen these 1-percenters, some of them have two Twilight Garrisons, Thorns, Party Crashers with rangefinder and rifled barrel, and HUNDREDS of strange coins. How can an up and coming guardian ever attain that sort of wealth when they're only getting 30 or so strange coins a week? These 1-percenters have all the exotics they could ever need and yet they still horde hundreds of strange coins and three of coins, it's not fair!" To make things "fair" Bernie hikes taxes on guardians that have an "excessive" amount of exotics and strange coins, if you have over 15 exotics you are hit with a 45% tax. You must pay the new Vanguard gov't 45% of your exotics or strange coins. If you have 20 exotics you pay a 60% tax on your exotics and strange coins, and if you have 35+ exotics you pay a 75% tax. It's only "fair". The new gov't then begins to subsidize Xur. As a result, Xur now provides two exotics and 10 three of coins a week to underprivileged guardians for "free". Regular guardians notice a spike in prices for exotics from Xur, armor prices rise to 18 strange coins a piece, weapon engrams rise to 25 strange coins, three of coins are now 10, and legacy engrams (a luxury item) come up to 50 strange coins a piece. Guardians who worked hard for their exotics and strange coins are ridiculed for being "wealthy", they were simply "lucky" they had RNG on their side. Never mind the fact that they spent hours raiding and grinding in Iron Banner, their high light level and collections of exotics/strange coins aren't the result of their hard work, they only have all that because of "luck" and it's "unfair". Bernie's economic policy and crippling taxes destroy all the incentive to raid and grind Iron Banner. "Why would I spend all that time and energy raiding when Bernie is just gonna tax and take most of my hard earned loot?" guardians ask. "Hell I could just sit back, pound some beers, and shoot dregs on patrol while collecting those "free" exotics and three of coins from Xur every week" other guardians say. As a result, wealthy guardians leave the tower, swear their allegiance to the Queen, and move to Reef (taking their exotics, strange coins, and possessions with them). Suddenly, no one is left to pay for the expensive subsidies and programs that supply underprivileged guardians with "free" exotics and three of coins. Without the "wealthy" to tax and pay for the gov't programs, these social programs go insolvent and suddenly Xur stops providing goods to underprivileged guardians. Meanwhile since their is still so much debt the higher prices on Xur's goods remain, sparking a revolt. Both the underprivileged and middle class guardians are unable to afford these high priced exotics and three of coins. The remaining guardians have become dependent on government and expect to be provided with something, however, Bernie's new Vanguard gov't is reeling in debt from providing all these "free" goods and services. The people begin to uprise (just like in every other example of socialism) and a coup is organized to oust Bernie from the Vanguard. One morning Bernie is walking outside with his bodyguard and is attacked by Cayde-6, Bernie and his bodyguard both fire their shotguns but Cayde-6 is 10 feet away and just outside of range. Cayde then quickly dispatches both of them from 10 feet away with his 1000YS sniper. Cayde-6 then embarks on a campaign to make the Vanguard great again. Meanwhile, the Reef has transformed into an economic powerhouse where guardians are eager to work hard, take risks, and keep the rewards of their work. The Reef has low taxes but because there is so much wealth their revenues remain strong, couple this with the fact that the Reef doesn't blow money on redistribution and social programs, and what do you know... They're running a budgetary surplus!! Moral of the story: Capitalism > "Democratic" Socialism Rand Paul 2016 ...and if he doesn't get the nomination any other Republican 2016, they're all more economically literate than Bernie! Edit: Lots of people showing love and lots of people hating. To the haters all I gotta say is supply and demand is LAW. Learn it, live it, love it. Bernie sure doesn't... Edit 2: Over-regulation is a bad thing. In Destiny terms, was Destiny better when it first came out or after all of Bungie's various nerfs and buffs? I think we know the answer... Edit 3: This post sure got crazy, kinda like Bernie Sander's economic policies. For all the haters I have one statement, supply and demand determines value. This is an irrefutable economic truth. Bernie's policies attempt to assign value in opposition to supply and demand. That is why his policies are guaranteed to fail. To everyone that showed some love, YOU ROCK!!

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  • Edited by Szeth6678: 1/27/2016 6:50:48 PM
    You can't even compare Destiny and real life at all, let alone in economic terms. People in Destiny who have lots of exotics, strange coins, etc have no real advantages over people who don't have them (not counting specific pvp/pve weapons, just exotics in general). They also have no way to give these things to others. I know many people (myself included) who would be perfectly willing to give a noob the 385737th Crest of Alpha Lupi we get. People who do not have many of these things are honestly no worse off than people who do. They aren't being held back from various parts of the game. In the real world, if you are in the 1%, you have nothing you really need to worry about. You have the money to pay any taxes, own numerous homes, buy any food you want, have the best quality utilities, have any level of education you desire, have nearly any[i]thing[/i] you can think of. The extent of your budgeting amounts to "Ok, let's put fifty million aside for those monthly fees. That should cover it." Your taxes, while large in amount, barely touch your vast fortune; you often have un-taxable money in other countries. Alongside all that, you have the financial capacity to help others less fortunate. Who are these people? Company execs, CEOs, who make their money from the work of others. That isn't to say that they don't do work themselves, that they didn't earn their position, because at least some of them did. If you work hard to be successful, you deserve the fruits of your labor. If you live in poverty, in general, your life is a struggle. You have to carefully budget out each paycheck, making sure you pay your rent/mortgage, phone/internet bill(s) (assuming you have either), insurance, and utilities such as water, electricity, and waste management. Hoping you have enough for gas (if you have a car/motorcycle) and food, and praying to whatever powers you believe in that you don't have to pay some sudden fee (medical bills, vehicle repairs, etc.). You dread having to pay taxes each year. Who are these people? Or in this case, the more relevant question is how did they end up in their position? Some, yes, have only themselves to blame. They got involved with drugs or other crime and ended up in jail, or simply made some generally bad choices in life (gambling, alcoholism, an expensive cigarette addiction). But what about the rest? The ones who, but for a sour turn of fate, could be middle-class or even the 1%. They got hit by a car and are now permanently disabled, or had a child with a significant other who abandoned them. Or maybe their child has health issues which are expensive to treat. For whatever reasons entirely out of their control, they are now barely getting by, even with the government's help. The disabled man works as much as his damaged body will allow, the single parent juggles a job and child care, the parents work as much as they can while having to constantly care for their ill child. A small group of people live in unrivaled luxury while vast numbers of people are going hungry every day, are [i]surviving[/i] more than [b]living[/b]. You see the difference? If you have more money than you could possibly spend in a lifetime, why shouldn't you help those less fortunate? Again, that isn't to say that you don't deserve the luxury you worked for, or that every person deserves to live luxurious lifestyles. But if your daily spending money is more than many people will make cumulatively in their lifetimes? If your car is worth more than the yearly income of an entire neighborhood (in the average city) combined? You can afford to pay a larger percentage in taxes. You can afford to pay your fair share.

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