ROI for governments

[DavidC]

I have no idea where to post this. Maybe a mod would like to move it to El D's (fine), OOT (I hope not), or SMP (as it deals with economics, this is probably best choice, if this forum isn't appropriate).

Preface:
I'm playing a computer game called Europa Universalis, in which you manage an empire. You make investments in various things, and in this game, the payouts are REALLY small for said investments.

i.e. to make a colony overseas will cost something like 660 gold over 5 years, and it has a mayout of maybe like 15 gold per year = 44 years to pay off.

Likewise, fighting a war will cost you at least one stability, which costs maybe like 2 years worth of production to get back, which costs, at the stage of the game I'm at, about 360 gold. You could conceivably win a provinces worth say 10g/year from this pursuit, which will have additional costs in policing and the maintenance of a growing army as well as just the building of that army in the first place.

Also, there are workshops that you can build once you get a certain level of tech, that earn about 2g/year and cost 48g to build.

Needless to say, this is a very slow game. A game where the rewards were bigger would be more like Risk or something of that nature. But it's got me thinking about the value of investing towards such small gains for governments.

The low rates of return don't seem that important, when you consider that you'll have them for centuries, and those investments will honestly make the difference between industrialized nations and medieval city states, over the course of centuries... At least, it would appear that way.

Anyways, if anyone wants to discuss what sort of ROI a government should get before taking on a project (assume that your ROI considers all possible means of ROI = i.e. all the extra tax that you would get from alternate sources when you improve infrastructure, not just tolls on the road itself, etc etc), and ignore the politics of it (i.e. pretend like you don't care about public support, just increasing the wealth/power of a nation).

Please feel free to comment.
--Dave.

[Blarg]

That's a very particular and sometimes dangerous way to define the wealth and power of a nation. At least, before you get television into a few generations.

In a practical sense, ask yourself how much America has benefited by having enough general wealth, not concentrated wealth, to attract immigrants for hundreds of years. Do people swarm to move toward or away from places that provide general economic opportunity? Nobody would move to hell and build a nation there if the opportunity was only for the few who already had it.

[Sniper]

Since this is a computer game, can you put TIME in context?...

For example... 44 game years that passes in 5 minutes is meaningless [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

(I'm going to note that I haven't loooked for info on the game, before posting this question)

I will also note, that IRL gov't decisions are not always ROI based.

[DavidC]

[ QUOTE ]
Since this is a computer game, can you put TIME in context?...

For example... 44 game years that passes in 5 minutes is meaningless [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually, the funny part is that playing the game has gotten me more interested in the real gov't application of this, just as a policy question that I've never understood before.

Anyways, the game itself, a max speed (and you slow down for wars, etc.) is 3 min per year, so jesus h christ it's a long time to wait for an investment to pay off (2 hrs RL).

[DavidC]

[ QUOTE ]
I will also note, that IRL gov't decisions are not always ROI based.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm pretty sure I noted that also. Regardless, that's the question that I asked.

[DavidC]

My head just exploded.

I think we're going to have to let others elaborate.