Each colony in Dissent on Mars has a constitution that determines the rules for how the colony operates. In previous posts, we’ve explored the different parts of a constitution: allocation systems, property rights, money, consumption rights, and decision making. Today, I’d like to talk about laws, which provide additional rules based on the constitution.
Revolution
If enough people are protesting, you can declare a revolution and design a new constitution. Hopefully, you can find solutions to the colonist’s problems without abolishing the whole government, but hey, sometimes you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do!
Product Policy
This law determines what types of products colonists can buy at a distribution center. They can either buy any product that’s available, or they can only buy products that were included in their consumption plan. If the colony uses democratic planning, colonists will create consumption plans that signal what they plan to buy. Changing the product policy prevents them from buying things that weren’t included in their plan.
Surplus Limit
If the colony uses democratic planning, a supercomputer called the allocation computer calculates the supply and demand for everything in the economy based on the colonist’s plans. If everything is feasible, the plans will be approved. The surplus limit determines when the allocation computer considers a product feasible. For example, if the surplus limit is 5%, every product in the colony would need to have a surplus of 5% or less to be considered feasible.
Round Limits
If the colony uses democratic planning, colonists will negotiate how the economy works through multiple rounds of planning. Since negotiations can go on forever, there needs to be limits on how long they can last. Two laws help with this: the first sets a limit for how many rounds in a row a product can be unfeasible before it’s forbidden, and the second sets a limit for how many rounds can occur before all products are forbidden. The colonists will try to negotiate a feasible plan, but if there are some products they can’t agree on they’ll eventually be forbidden. If the negotiations continue to go on for a long time, the second limit ensures the process will come to an end.
Conclusion
I’m guessing this post gave you a lot to chew on, so I’ll talk about the remaining laws in the next post!
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Thanks for reading,
Michael