Golden ethics

[DAVOUT]

I am an enlighted despot leading China toward an extremely bright future, but I made a mistake in letting people access to internet and specifically to the ?Apolyton forum : Civ III Democracy Game?. Foreign workers, after they have understood that ethics means freedom, are besieging my office demanding to be freed IMMEDIATELY, on the basis that it is my best interest to live, at last, according the highest principles of equality of all human beings.

They add that, although it is not presently in their intention to bring me before a penal court, they definitely want to receive from me a so called ?indemnity? in consideration of the cruelty they have endured for so many turns. Asked of what kind of indemnity they think of, they said that, refusing sincerely to disrupt or even disturb a Civ III Game interestingly engaged (they said so), they limit their claim to the cost I would have been charged for an equivalent number of free workers during the same number of turns.

Although I am not a mathist, I know perfectly well how many slaves are at any time working for the best of my empire, and their seniority ; so I was able to reply right away that they were claiming 10 000 golds (100 slaves with an average seniority of 100 turns), and that such an amount of money was not available in my whole Chinese Empire at any time in the past, and will not be in a foreseeable future. I added that I did not want to bargain in such a sensible case, but the charge of one gold for one worker/turn applies to workers whose productivity is 100%, whereas it is commonly accepted, as far as foreign workers are concerned, to be satisfied with a productivity limited to 50%, allowing time and energy for writing to the family, learning the Chinese language, etc, and therefore, the cost should also be discounted to 50% of 10000 golds, that is 5000 golds. This argument, I added, is purely rhetorical, since the sum of 5000 golds is no more available than the 10000.

Disappointed, they left and came back later with another solution ; for the sake of all the turns already spent side by side in the Chinese Empire, they were prepare to accept, in payment of my ethical debt, my work valuated at the one gold/turn standard rate. As I incidentally observed that they were not 5000 turns left in our current game, I was answered that they obviously would accept the work of my family, relatives and friends, provided they satisfied the medical test warranting their 100% productivity.

You see how, thanks to an otherwise very inconsequential mistake, the despot of a potent Empire, could finally, along with his family, relatives and good friends, enjoy during many centuries a life illuminated by the consciousness of acting in line with the highest ethical principles.

[miccofl]

Have you considered communism?

[DAVOUT]

Of course, I contemplated intensely a shift to communism which would have certainly offered many opportunities to find a way to the top of the Nomenklatura, but it would have been at the cost of my ethical principles. I also must recognize that the workers made clear they prefer slavery under an enlightened despot like me, rather than a life where anything not forbidden is compulsory.