Official News - page 1

THE DANGERS OF UNEMPLOYMENT

by Hazed

Nobody likes to be bored, and they like being unoccupied even less if they have no money to spend on entertainment. The devil makes work for idle hands, so the saying goes, and unemployed people with too much time on their hands (or equivalent) will soon get into mischief. Not to mention that if they aren't earning a wage, they won't be able to afford to buy the essentials of life, such as food to keep them alive, shoes for their tiny children, and the latest smutty holos showing nude aliens in provocative poses.

In short, unemployed people get disgruntled. If you have enough of them on your planet, it's going to add to your dissatisfaction levels, which could lead to rioting.

You've probably got a week or thereabouts before this new code gets implemented, but when it does, it's going to give Engineers one more thing to worry about.

Here's how it will work. So long as your unemployment rate remains below 50% the grumbling will remain just that, and won't have a serious affect. However, if half your available workthings can't get a job in factories or depots, then 5% will be added to your disaffection. If the unemployment level reaches 60%, the disaffection will go up by 10%. Then it'll jump to 15% should unemployment go up to 70%, and so on, up to a 30% increase should there be no work at all on your planet.

This means it is going to be all the more important for resource planets to attract factories and depots, so as to provide jobs for the boys (and the girls and the things).

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