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Balancing The Books
France is having so much trouble balancing its budget that it has taken to asking computer gamers to help it out. This week, just as French taxpayers are wondering which allowances to include in their annual income tax forms, the finance ministry launched an online game which challenges players to balance the state budget of 300 billion Euros.
Cyber-Budget lets gamers play the budget minister as he zooms between his modernist offices at Bercy in Paris to the various dole offices, dockyards and banlieus, all making demands on his cash.
The game, modelled on strategy games like Civilisation, makes players react to world events and the demands of other ministers with the aim of delivering a working budget to parliament. The minister is equipped with a driver, a glossary of economic terms and a Blackberry - as well as a team of advisers.
Interestingly, the "real" budget minister Jean-Francois Cope appears to see the game as a means of persuading French citizens that they can't cut taxes. Speaking on French telly, he said "The idea is that when we cut taxes, we can't do it without creating deficits." He added that the game demonstrates what changes must be made to "budget costs, education spending, military spending... and see what kind of decision we can take when we want to cut taxes."
As many influential leftists see the solution to France's current troubles in raising business taxes and personal taxes on the rich, Cope might have spent more time explaining the harm to the economy that any such squeeze would have. EURSOC will play more later today - we'll try the high tax model and report back.
