
1) I want to gradually replace Income taxes with excise taxes. In the real world, I would implement policies to ensure that the system isn't regressive, but on here, obviously I can't do that. Will higher excise taxes be hard on my low income citizens?
2) My unemployment has been gradually creeping up and it's now just about my #1 priority (at 25%!). I have a lot of immigration and a high birth rate. I think part of the problem is that I'm not creating enough new jobs for my new citizens. I have been raising family spending, but obviously, that will take awhile to make a difference. I've just started raising tariffs to try to promote local business and lower imports (I don't like the idea, but I'm at the point I have to do something). I screwed up and ran a pretty big surplus for awhile which hurt my economy somewhat so now I'm trying to run a small deficit with the goal of regaining some of my lost growth. I don't want to go into debt though. Am I on the right track or should I do something else? Any tips?
3) I am trying to address my high inflation rate, which is stubbornly above 4%. I've been raising interest by the maximum amount every quarter but it keeps falling. When in the past I raised the money supply it seemed to add money to my treasury, so I'm concerned that reducing it will have the opposite effect (shredding money), am I right? I'm okay with spending some money on that, but I'll go into debt pretty quickly if I'm not careful with 1% of money supply being $10+ billion. Is there anything else I can do to address my inflation?
Also, on a related note, the inflation and real economic growth figures (I assume this one is quarterly economic growth adjusted for inflation?) don't seem to be related in any way to the figures on my "Overview" which pretty much never change... Would anyone mind explaining this?
Thanks!
I hope I'm not asking to many questions, but here goes another one: I want to raise welfare so that it's closer to cost of living, but I am concerned that this will lower incentive to work. Normally I would do it anyway, but will raising welfare make my unemployment even worse?