AusterityInTheHome

I made this game because I was frustrated with the mainstream media using the model of a Household's Finances to justify increasing Austerity measures. I was also frustrated with alot of politics being about //belief//. You have to believe in a politician and what they are saying at the time and hopefully you'll have access to the required data to make a judgement call on that. But I just ''don't remember'' things like that. Surely in the 21st century there should be a way of using actual data somewhere so you can see for yourself? And yes the internet can do that if you look hard enough. But it's not that easy The impact of the deficit and what needs to be done about it is a really complex issue. The household rule of thumb that advises ''"Don't spend what you don't have"'' is just not really up to the task of managing a ''£716 billion'' budget (I got that number of projected 2016/2017 public receipts from <a target="_blank" href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/budget-2016-documents/budget-2016#the-uk-economy-and-public-finances-1">here</a>.) Can we make a [[household budget game|house]]? (set: $budget to 750)(set: $rentpaid to false)(set: $shopped to false) (set: $billspaid to false)(set: $seenmodel to false)

<h3>Austerity In The Home</h3> A game about shopping for the household. You currently have ''£$budget'' in the household budget. Pay the [[rent|rent]] Do the [[shopping|shopping]] Pay the [[bills|bills]] {(if: $rentpaid is true and $shopped is true and $billspaid is true and $seenmodel is false)[ Ok you seem to be spent up. That's it. You will start noticing the cutting of frontline services from now on. Oh no! What to do...[[Maybe print some money?|QuantativeEasing]] ](else-if: $seenmodel is true)[ If you want to learn more about playing with ''Interactive Non-Fiction'' and use stuff like <a target="_blank" href="https://github.com/davemee/TwineNodered">node-red in Twine</a> then enrol yourself on one of our workshops at //Toxteth Library// on ''Friday 6th or Saturday 7th October 2017'' Find out more <a target="_blank" href="http://domesticscience.org.uk/InF.html#CPD">here</a> Read a list of useful links I used to make this game <a target="_blank" href="https://pinboard.in/u:cheapjack/t:austeritygame">here</a> ](else:)[Watch [[telly|telly]] or something ]}

$rentpaid {(if: $rentpaid is true)[ You have already paid it this month ](else-if: $rentpaid is false)[ (set: $budget to it - 500)Great you've paid the rent. ](else:)[]} You've got ''£$budget'' left. (set: $rentpaid to true) Back to the [[kitchen|house]]

{(if: $shopped is true)[ You have already been the shops this month. No crisps for you! ](else-if: $shopped is false)[ (set: $budget to it - 150)Great you've done the shopping. ](else:)[ ]} You've got ''£$budget'' left. (set: $shopped to true) Back to the [[kitchen|house]]

{(if: $billspaid is true)[ You have already paid the bills. Yay. ](else-if: $billspaid is false)[ (set: $budget to it - 150)Great you've paid the bills. ](else:)[ ]} You've now got ''£$budget'' left. (set: $billspaid to true) Back to the [[kitchen|house]]

No, you can't do that as a household. Legally anyway. Ok so we've got a deficit of ''£$budget'' now. Oh dear. Better stop eating. That household simulator works for a household (kinda). But it's not really good enough to base economic policy on. Actually an economy can control it's money supply by growing and getting more money from taxation or ''printing more money''. But how can we make a game about money supply where things like //quantitive easing// or //investment// grow the economy in a way that's based on //real accurate// data so we don't have to //believe// what people say? So we can look it up and play with the figures ourselves? That's why we need ''Interactive Non-Fiction!'' <img src="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/image_data/file/50801/Chart_1_960x640.jpg" width="600"> Ok here's a model of an economy that's interactive (click: "model")[(open-url: "http://domesticscience.org.uk/games/Interactive-Models/index.html") ''Hmm. Snazzy JS graphs. I still dont understand what to think about austerity though''] Maybe this (click: "Maybe this")[(open-url:"http://www.briancjenkins.com/nk-simulation/#plotBox"): ''Nope, still none the wiser really. It's Keynsian at least. Surely somewhere there is a [[data set somewhere|data]] that can help us?'']

Well I discovered this graph about how austerity affects GDP ie the growth of an economy which I got from <a target="_blank" href="http://www.newstatesman.com/economics/2013/07/austerity-has-cost-uk-3500-every-household">here</a> <img width="600" src="http://www.newstatesman.com/sites/default/files/images/taylor%20fig1%2019%20jul.png"> (set: $rentpaid to false)(set: $shopped to false)(set: $billspaid to false)(set: $seenmodel to true) Which works out at costing each household ''£3500'' (set: $austerity_cost to (3500 / 12))(set: $budget to 750) according to <a target="_blank" href="https://mainlymacro.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/how-much-has-austerity-cost-so-far.html">Simon</a>. Put that in our silly game and that works out at ''£(round: $austerity_cost)'' less in our budget. (set: $budget to $budget - (round: $austerity_cost)) Go back and play the [[game again|house]]