23 - Arcane Instruction
Starlight led the way into one of the many libraries that dominated the tower. "We'll start with the basics, glowing. You have to have that basic grip on your horn before you even consider moving on to real magic." She spun around suddenly. "Not that what you're doing isn't real magic, I mean." She raised a hoof to her face. "Sorry, I'm messing this up!"
I reached out a hoof to her shoulder. "Relax, Starlight. I'm here and listening. What do we do first?"
Starlight took a little breath before she nodded with regained confidence. "Right, you're here." She smiled at me. "Go ahead and have a seat here." She pointed to a small pad on the ground. She waited until I had done so, then gestured at her face. "Close your eyes and try to block out your body except for your breath, and your horn."
I closed my eyes and breathed softly. "How do I--"
"We're getting to that, promise." I couldn't see her, but I could imagine a nervous smile on Starlight's face. "Keep your eyes closed and wait."
There was a long moment of silence before I felt something touch my horn. I started and that got a yelp from Starlight. "Stay still," she hissed from just a bit above me. "Focus on the feeling. You have to learn how to feel your horn properly."
I tried to calm myself and relax. Starlight wasn't out to hurt me. I just had to relax, right? I still shivered just a little when I felt it again. It was warm and wet. Was that her magic? Wait, no... The longer I concentrated on it, the more I could feel more precisely what was going on. That texture... "Are you licking me?" My voice carried my surprise without disguise. "I am not a popsicle."
There was a soft clopping noise. "Very good. You've passed the first test. Now you're feeling with your horn. Try this." She brushed a hoof gently along my horn, and it went on and on just like that. She'd do something and expect me to identify it without peeking. I was starting to wonder if part of it was just her enjoying touching me. Still, nothing too untoward happened besides that lick.
Her voice lowered to just in front of me. "You passed that with flying colors. I hear some students can flounder in the tactile stage for weeks. Now don't get a swollen head, many others move on just as fast as you are. It varies from unicorn to unicorn."
I opened my eyes to see her smiling face. "Is that it then for lesson one?"
She shook her head. "Well, no, it could have been, but since you've passed that so quickly, why not push forward?"
I didn't feel tired, so I nodded quickly. "What's next? Also, were you flying?"
Starlight's horn began to glow and she lifted from the ground gently, hovering. "A little trick I worked out. I can't promise you'll get to that level, but we're going to try, alright?"
I reached out a hoof and waved it under Starlight, then over her. My investigation made her grin. Oh, that grin. It was so very smug. She was clearly very proud of her magic.
"Don't worry about that for now. You're in the basics." She landed gently. "And you're doing great! Alright, now that you can feel your horn, it's time to focus on the inside. Now... There are two ways we can proceed. The slow and boring way, or the fast and maybe a little invasive way."
"Invasive?" I raised a brow at her. Was it more invasive than being licked? "How invasive are you talking?"
Starlight pointed up at my horn. "I can use my magic to reach right on in there and tickle the parts you need to focus on, so you can learn what they feel like more easily. Poor unicorns without unicorn mentors have to figure it out themselves. That can take weeks, months, even years. If you trust me, we could be done much faster."
I gaped at her a little and the world as a whole. It was like learning breathing techniques from a teacher that could rest a hand on your lungs and heart directly, without surgery. "That... sounds amazing, unbelievable, and a scootch terrifying."
Starlight lay a hoof over her own heart. "I swear, as your mentor, I will be gentle and careful. If you have this trust in me, we can proceed."
Did I have that trust in her? We hadn't known each other for that long. Still, she was a unicorn of talent, enough to be Twilight's, a princess, student. "Let's make one thing clear."
"Hmm?"
"We do this right. It's not a contest."
Starlight bobbed her head. "Yes, right. I'm not trying to hurry you, True. We can do it the slower way if you'd rather?"
I was not a woman, er, stallion used to waiting when the option of moving faster was available, so long as that faster route wouldn't lead to complications down the road. "Let's do it, just be careful."
Starlight gave a little clop of joy before she settled herself on her haunches and reached with her glittering magic for my horn. I could see those sparkles pressing in at the tip, which felt pretty darn strange, let me assure you. I tried to stay still as best I could as I felt it pressing down and around in a spiral.
"Can you feel that? That's where your magic goes." I felt her press at one of the walls from the inside. "Learning how to channel and make magic flow along very specific patterns is how you'll advance to more and more complex spells." She stopped pressing in and seemed to be exploring. "I'm no doctor, but everything feels alright in here. That's good! Any scarring along this channel or other malformations can lower your potential as a wizard for life."
Oh, that made me feel so much better about having her in there, but I stayed still, terrified that any sudden movement may cause untold damage.
She pressed past that spiral and the resistance seemed lessened. "Ah, here we are. We're in the cranial-alicorn cavity." I felt her magic brush gently against something. "There's your thaumaturgical gland, where your magic is made ready to use through your horn. That's where we'll focus right now. I'm going to give it the littlest squeeze."
She did, and my muscles went tense. Light sparkled around my horn for a moment as a shiver ran through me from fuzzy ears to equally fuzzy tail. "Dear god!"
"Dear whatnow?" Starlight tilted her head. "I want you to express magic on your own now." She gently nudged that organ but didn't squeeze again. "You can feel it now, yes?"
I was acutely aware of the bulb in my skull, but making it twitch was another thing entirely. We spent what felt like hours with her nudging, brushing and even squeezing. It had me squirming and making the funniest little noises, but slowly I got my horn to glow dimly. I was making that muscle move.
Starlight withdrew gently from my horn and nodded. "Now, the boring part, practice. You're going to have to keep doing that until you can make a nice, clean, enduring light. Once you've done that, you're officially a mature unicorn, at least magically speaking." Her eyes roamed over me. "You're already quite mature in other ways..."
I tapped a hoof on the ground. "About that..." I could be coy or dance around the issue, or I could just ask. "Are you interested, Starlight?" My cheeks warmed at the asking, yet it still felt right to do. I blamed True Shot, the original.
Starlight coughed into a hoof. "I already told you where we lie." She rose up to her hooves and turned away. Her tail flicked dismissively. "You are my student. Keep practicing." She vanished in a bright sparkling.
None of that specifically said 'No, I am not interested in you.' I shook my head a little. Looking up at my horn, I willed it to glow and it gave a sputtering performance before settling into a dim little shimmer. I would get it to be brighter, that I promised myself even as I started walking. What was the use of magic you had to stay perfectly still for, anyway?
"Oh, True Shot!" Twilight was trotting down the stairs. "I'm glad to see you're alright. How was the visit with Zecora?"
I smiled at her before I focused on my horn, getting a brief flare up of brightness before it sputtered, spraying sparks for a moment.
Twilight blinked with wide eyes before she sat on her haunches and gave a clopping. "Oh! You're learning magic, yes, I remember that. Starlight must be doing a commendable job if you're already up to glowing." She pointed at my horn. "Don't try to force it past your comfortable level, or you'll get that sputtering effect. However did she manage it so quickly?"
"She did it the fast way," I replied as I moved to walk with her. She had stood up and resumed her journey.
"Fast way?"
"She reached into my horn."
Twilight cringed and stopped dead. "I'm... glad that worked well, but many schools forbid that, for fear of the student's health. Did Starlight make it clear the risks involved?" She shook her head, concern in her eyes. "A little shortcut could mean being magically crippled forever, if either of you did the wrong thing while she was operating."
I felt a cringe coming on as well. "She had." Sort of. She had impressed it was invasive, but not so much how risky the world at large considered it. "Well... we're past that now, right?"
Twilight took a small breath. "Yes. Just, in the future, let's not hurry this along at the expense of our health or long term potential. Still, congratulations are in order." She resumed walking and headed into the kitchen. "If this were human school, you've just entered high school. You're a young adult, just learning to really walk. Don't fall for the trap of thinking you can break into a sprint just yet." She pulled a jar down and popped it open easily, revealing cookies. She floated one over to me and I took it from her magic into my own. "My special supply," she said with a warm smile. "Spike knows not to touch these." Twilight took one for herself and put the jar back where it came from. "Speaking of which, me and the girls have to head out in a few days, royal business. I trust you'll be alright with Spike?"
"Sure, Spike's a great dragon. You're not taking him with you?"
She shook her head quickly. "Afraid this isn't one for him." She tapped her chin. "He likes to have a 'guy's night', and, well, you are one of those, so he may invite you. Have fun with it."
It was true, I was one of those. Hanging out with Spike sounded like a dose of sugar of the good kind. "If he invites me, I'll be sure to attend." I gave the cookie a nibble and found it crumbled just right, melted on my tongue, and had a delightful blend of flavors and butter that danced before being swallowed. "Mmm, you ponies are too damn good at cooking!"
Twilight laughed softly. "You can blame the Cakes for that one. They made that batch. Pinkie usually does my baked goods, but she was out the last time I went in for a resupply. Ah, yes." She produced a small bag from nowhere. "Your stipend." She floated it over and I accepted it.
Peeking inside, I saw a nice collection of bits of various denominations. "Why do I get paid, by the way? I'm not doing anything."
Twilight shook her head. "On the contrary, all citizens of Equestria are entitled to a minimal-lifestyle stipend for pursuing their destiny." She pointed at my flank. "You eagerly chase after yours, so you qualify. You also qualify for a few other things, so the stipend is raised just a little."
I blinked softly. Equestria was socialist? Thinking about it a moment, that seemed less surprising. Colorful, adorable, ponies would not have a society that didn't take care of each other as a priority. "What about ponies that have useless destinies?"
Twilight rolled her eyes lightly. "While some do seem of dubious value to society as a whole, we welcome everypony that puts their heart into it. Surprising innovations can come out of it, not to mention happy neighbors are easier to live with. It's a net gain for the country, overall. I'm still curious what the pony who loves large jars of jelly will ever accomplish, but the small stipend to keep him safe and fed means he isn't hurting anyone, spreading disease, or otherwise being a negative influence." She pointed at my cutie mark again. "Yours is much more direct. Managing and facilitating healthy relationships is of obvious benefit to society. Your stipend would increase if you made your services more directly available. For instance, opening a storefront."
Oh, oops! I got carried away. I thought I was still under 2k words, and here I am. The typo is size today.
Hey, I mention these a lot, but we're close to the end of the month, so it would be a great time to join the patreon so I can get to working on your story next month!
Support me on 
atreon!
Join my discord to chat!
Stats
Page generated in 0.026 seconds
Total duration
878 users online
617,914 hits today, 2,054,621 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
New Opening.
2Pid Cupid Relationship counciling.
Dont have a relationship? Try our complimentary services.
Wait what? Equestria is a functioning socialist society?! I hope they never find out how we do things.
So that must mean Mr. Rich gets a huge stipend for doing so much to pursue his destiny of making money.
7907489 How much he loves his destiny has no bearing.
Does he pursue it?
Is his talent made available?
Is it useful for society?
A yes to each of those bumps the minimum living wage given. Note, however, it's a 'minimum'. Meaning if the pony is already at or above that, then nothing needs to be done.
Haha. We're doing childly things, swear!
It's always nice to learn how to control certain body parts. Having someone stick their metaphysical hands in to stimulate them, maybe not so much. Still a better way than, "I felt it and then magic happened, now I'm a pro!"
Keep going! ;)
Okay, wow. There's so much to dig into here. Let's dive right into this:
First of all, what Twilight's talking about is a mixture of a universal basic income - where all citizens/residents of a country receive a sum of money unconditionally - and a guaranteed minimum income, which grants everyone a living income provided that they meet certain conditions for eligibility. The former is featured in more than a few versions of socialism, whereas the latter doesn't come up quite so much in that regard.
This leads to two major issues regarding how such a system would work: the first is the question of where the money is coming from, and the second is how "eligibility" - in this case a determination as to whether or not an individual is qualifying for "a few other things" - for additional funds is determined.
Insofar as funding goes, the most basic idea for how such a system typically works is that it's paid via income earned from public institutions. So if the state owns various successful enterprises - which is to say, that it's engaged in business activity that enough of the population engages in to turn a (large enough) profit - it then takes that money and spreads it throughout the community in equal distributions. Essentially, it periodically takes in and redistributes wealth. This would typically happen if the government ran various systems that were essential and/or wildly popular with a majority of the population.
Except, here's the thing: such a system would not be socialism in Equestria! That's because "state ownership" only corresponds to "public ownership" when the state - that is, the government - is run by the people. Equestria doesn't have that, at least not insofar as we've seen; rather, all governmental power and authority rests with the royalty (or rather, with the alicorns - Prince Blueblood really doesn't seem to count). While it could be postulated that they don't have actual governmental responsibilities, being heads of state rather than heads of government, there's nothing to support such a postulation, and circumstantial evidence to refute it (e.g. the alicorns engages in foreign policy by having secret meetings with the Duke and Duchess of Maretonia). So - even if we accept that they don't exercise their authority very often - that means that they don't have a socialist government in any regard. Because with the possible exception of low-level regional functionaries (and maybe not even then; outside of the comics - which are non-canon anyway - we've never seen Mayor Mare run for office), the government won't be itself public in nature.
That this function is governmental seems to be strongly implied in the quoted passage, which eliminates the idea that such a system could be privately implemented. But this implies that there's a major governmental apparatus at work, since that would not only require managing whatever system is taking in the money in the first place (though to be fair, that would just look like any other job), but necessitate major operations in terms of charting the money earned (which would be a huge deal, since accounting is supremely important where money is concerned), delivering it however often it goes out, and maintaining records (which would also be extremely important, since this is apparently the only money most ponies get). All of this should require a very large set of systems to manage, none of which we've seen. Moreover, we haven't seen anything to suggest that True Shot has interacted with such mechanisms at all; he's filled out no forms or anything. He's getting a sack of money simply for being there. Maybe Princess Celestia did it for him?
Insofar as the other issue is concerned, regarding the evaluation of who is entitled to earn more, how much more, who makes that determination, etc., the major issue here is largely a social one. Simply put, people don't like being told that other people are worth more, or have contributed more, than they have. Whether or not that's true has little to do with it. Luckily, Equestria has a huge leg up here, as harmony is not only their highest principle but also a magical force, and so social problems of this nature tend to be limited to local malcontents who can be encouraged to fix their ways with a half-hour of someone talking to them about their feelings (singing and dancing optional). The more important question is who conducts such an evaluation to begin with. That would require a level of governmental function that we've never seen in the series to date, essentially marking the beginning of a bureaucracy that is thought of as being typical of a government (or at least, one that's active in the lives of its citizens).
Overall, this isn't a bad idea per se, but suffers from exactly the issues you'd expect when trying to get into the realistic aspects of a fantastic setting that wasn't originally built to take them into account: you tend to realize that, once you start examining the details, it really couldn't work the way it's been portrayed.
7907525 Wait, wait...so your basic income can be reduced if you're already financially stable? Oh that throws a huge wrench in the works.
7906907 No, it's not. There's absolutely nothing that we see in the show to suggest that various means of production are socially owned (let alone controlled democratically), nor that the government works to establish or maintain such a thing. If anything, we see the opposite: Filthy Rich controls what are strongly implied to be private enterprises, and all governmental authority is held by a small group of individuals who are not held legally or politically accountable to anyone (save possibly each other). Equestria is not socialist in any sense of the word!
7908568 All good questions that... aren't answered, much like the show.
If you want me to conjecture, and I think you do, here I go. A pony living with their parents, that is marked as a dependent on taxes, doesn't get anything, period. Their parents may or may not get something, but we can save that for a whole other debate.
If the pony moves out, they can then file for the stipend. They go to a local governance, like the Town Hall in ponyville, fill out some forms, which has been proven that Ponies have plenty of, and likely have to have an interview with a functionary there to decide on what level they qualify for. The wheels turn and money is dispensed.
Presuming the pony is not already, that is a great time to encourage them to make their talent available to the rest of the country. Hey, they may make enough on their own to vastly overshadow the little stipend and not need to rely on the generosity of the royalty anymore. Wouldn't that make you proud? You'd be a source of stipends instead of a use of them.
Clearly, for many ponies, going for it is the option they take and they try to put their talent to work, many overtaking their stipends and, with pride, living on their own work and paying taxes that help pay for other ponies that don't.
Big jar of jelly pony is still enjoying big jars of jelly.
Even Troublehooves managed a meager little life before he got a real position. No one in Equestria is shown to be critically destitute. They don't do that.
7908596 Taxes alone aren't going to be enough to fund this sort of system. For one thing, those ponies that live on the minimum basic income aren't going to be taxed for it, simply because it makes no sense to do so; if they're already not earning any money (or virtually none) and so require the basic minimum income just to survive, then they aren't going to have money to pay. So right there, you know that this system isn't going to be able to rely on taxation to make it viable.
The proper counterargument to this, of course, is that leveling progressive (rather than flat) taxes on extremely rich individuals could solve this problem, but in practice that's not really going to work either. Unless there are numerous super-rich individuals and very few people who earn no other taxable income, then you're almost certainly going to wind up with a shortfall. Worse, a significant number of supremely-wealthy individuals aren't going to have their most valuable assets in the form of liquid wealth. Real estate tends to be a major factor in this; Rarity had to wait for a shop to open up in Canterlot, which suggests that there's simply no space left there that somepony doesn't already own, meaning that it's all very valuable simply because there's so little of it and because of how close to the princesses it is. Additionally, you're not paying the basic income to these ponies, and so you save some money there, but that's (most likely more than) cancelled out by paying additional income to numerous other ponies that are not just living in society, but contributing to it.
So if taxes won't be enough to pay for this system, that means that the government needs alternative revenue streams. Admittedly, one could broaden the tax base by instituting multiple taxes, rather than just taxing income, but that would be counterproductive, since if you taxed something like food you'd be charging tax money from those pesky ponies who rely on your stipend just to live, meaning that they'd need a bigger stipend to compensate for the increased costs on food due to the tax charges. So now you're left with means to generating wealth that doesn't rely on mandatory charges from the populace that you rule over.
Now, that's still entirely possible, but requires some alternative thinking. One would be to run various non-essential services that require charging a fee to use, but it's difficult to tell exactly what that would be in Equestria. While you could have any number of state-run enterprises, virtually any business is going to require upkeep and maintenance costs (and will probably not want to pay its employees very much, if anything, since that reduces the inflow of cash) - you can't run a fair without renting the land, purchasing the equipment, performing maintenance on it, buying food for stalls, cleaning the place, etc. Maybe for low-cost talent productions, such as concerts - it's amusing to think of Sapphire Shores and Countess Coloratura as being government employees - but those are hard to make perpetually viable. Even if some celebrities can be popular almost eternally, there's still issues with only being able to fill so many concert halls at a time, no matter how much you charge for tickets.
A popular answer is to finance this via foreign money, but that tends to be tricky as well. You can either force other countries to pay you - conquest comes immediately to mind, but also performing necessary services that they don't want to do themselves, either due to cultural distaste or simple economics, e.g. you conduct their national defense. The major idea here, of course, is that Celestia and Luna move the sun and the moon for everyone, and so the rest of the world owes them something for what they do - or you can take out loans. Despite what a lot of detractors say, loans aren't a bad way to generate money, at least in the short-to-medium term. That's because foreign nations can't really foreclose on each other, short of going to war (which is virtually guaranteed to be more expensive than the money you're trying to recoup, not to mention the issue of manpower, the security issues of sending so much of your military abroad, and the fact that you might lose). Moreover, being able to pay back interest on your loan (which is essentially all you really need to be able to do) means that you've signaled to the world that you're a trustworthy debtor, and so invite a further influx of foreign capital.
This only really becomes a bad idea in the long-term, since at some point the total amount of interest you've paid back will eclipse the principal of the loan, but even that's not really a big deal, since governments tend to operate on annual budgets due to measures of practical reality (e.g. a large nation tends to be too large to handle in anything more than the short-term, with the long-term being impossible to predict outside of ranged projections), and foreign governments like knowing that they'll be receiving regular payments in perpetuity.
Ironically, that leads us to a viable answer: perhaps Equestria has given loans to other countries, and those nations are essentially paying back the interest on those loans for essentially the rest of time. That would also make Equestria extremely interested in the stability of those nations, since otherwise they'd stop receiving payments if they fell. Of course, that means that the fall of Griffonstone likely hurt Equestria's bottom line, so maybe that's why Princess Celestia made Twilight join her for a "friendship summit" in Griffonstone in Stranger Than Fan Fiction?
That's just one idea, of course; any other short-term project with major long-term gains (or, alternatively, low-overhead project with potential high-yield) would be areas where the government would likely claim sole dominion, as a matter of gaining finance. Unfortunately, it's hard to say exactly what that would be, since we don't know what major valuables are in Equestria - even some of the most obvious items of value (e.g. gemstones of flawless quality and perfect cut) seem to be everywhere, which would drive down value. They have metal coins, but there's little to suggest that precious metal mining is a major industry; even the diamond dogs do little more than pick gems off the walls of caverns, rather than look for gold. We haven't seen much of anything about oil.
Once again, the show is simply not concerned with such details, and that makes it very hard to back-generate them.
7908710
You said quite a bit there, but let's start here. Your basic assertation doesn't make sense to me.
You have 10 ponies. 3 are living on the stipend, gaining 20 bits a week for doing nothing, the lazy ponies. Total -60/wk Example Pones: Large Jar of Jelly Pone, and Troublehooves before he was directed to become an entertainer.
4 are living well, if modestly. Their tax revenue isn't much, say 3 bits a week out of them each. Running Total: -48/wk Example pones: Most background pones, Pinkie Pie
2 are doing quite well for themselves! They have really good jobs or run their own successful ventures. They pay a good amount, say 10 bits/wk. Running Total -28/wk Example Pones: Rarity, Rainbow Dash(She probably wastes most of the money she gets)
1 pony is rolling in piles of bits! He or she's regularly moving the stuff around. He pays a larger amount by far, say 50 bits/wk. Running Total: +22/wk. Example Pones: Filthy Rich, The celeb pones shown through the series who's names I forget.
Multiply by whatever the population of Equestria is, divided by ten, and there's your surplus just from income tax. This is, of course, extreme simplification, but I think it accurately enough shows my point? That's a net gain for other projects while still offering something to the poor bottom without immediately bankrupting your government, and assumes there is no other income, which would be strange. Trade tariffs, sales tax, and many other forms of potential money-making exist that do NOT include government-run businesses that you seemed to fixate on rather firmly.
7908762 Okay, let me break this down:
So here's where we are in terms of what the government is taking in versus what it's paying out:
Government Inflow: 0 bits/week.
Government Outflow: 60 bits/week.
Here's where your examples go off the rails. According to what we've been told, these ponies will still be receiving the weekly stipend each. Moreover, it's very likely that at least some of them will be earning extra income from the government thanks to them being "contributors" who are performing a valuable service. But let's put that aside for now, and assume that they're each paying the government 3 bits per week, and receiving 10 bits per week (half as much as those lazy ponies). That means that those four are collectively costing the government 40 bits, while paying 12 bits. Combined with the three from before, here's what we have:
G. Inflow: 12 bits/week.
G. Outflow: 100 bits/week.
Okay, let's assume that at this level the ponies no longer receive government stipends at all. They're earning all of their money from their own enterprises, which they pay taxes on. We'll assume that you meant that they're paying 10 bits per week each, and not collectively. Here's what that looks like, combined with the other ponies we've already mentioned:
G. Inflow: 32 bits/week.
G. Outflow: 100 bits/week.
Okay, this is obviously another pony who doesn't receive the government stipend, but still pays taxes. Adding him to the previous totals gets you the following:
G. Inflow: 82 bits/week.
G. Outflow: 100 bits/week.
And just like that, we can see why this system of taxation doesn't work: the government is still running at a deficit, and we're not even taking into account that some of these ten ponies will likely be earning extra income from the government for being contributing members of society, as previously outlined. That, and we're assuming a generous drop-off rate for how much those four productive ponies receive. Even then, the taxable revenue simply isn't enough to cover how much is needed to be paid out to everypony that isn't doing notably well for themselves, which is exactly what you'd expect - it's far and away easier to imagine that there are fewer wildly successful ponies than there are ponies that aren't rich or well-to-do and rely on that government income to make ends meet. That's why you can't just multiply this by ten, because it's easy to make ten more poor ponies (just have the poor have a lot of unprotected sex), whereas it's much harder to have ten more Filthy-Rich-successful ponies.
Trade tariffs are a bad idea, because doing so invites retaliatory tariffs that will wipe out most, possibly all, and maybe even more than what you'd earn from taxing imports. If you make it harder for other countries to sell their goods in your country, they're not going to just sit back and take it without trying to do anything about it. And sales taxes are going to mean taxing the ponies that can barely afford whatever it is that's being sold (if it's a necessity) or will cut back on their consumption (if it's not), and so tends to mean that the ponies at the bottom of the economic pyramid remain untaxable (or worth very little) - all you've done is lock them out of various items that they already had trouble purchasing.
If you tax people for less than their total income, and that's all of the funds that you have, then you can't subsequently pay people an amount equal to their total income.
7908937 The argument here seems to lie in the idea that you can't set a minimum and stick to it? I don't get it. I said you get 3 bits out of those people. Not -17. Even our real world government can manage this. As Linda later pointed out, it's welfare. It's clearly not given the same level of harsh glaring as America gives it, but even America manages to give it, poorly, but gives it. Welfare states do not all implode for being welfare states. Some of our most successful countries manage this, Sweden as a random example.
7908953 The key difference is that you're describing a system that acts purely as a social-safety net to make sure that at-risk ponies who would otherwise be destitute are able to afford a basic lifestyle. That's not what Twilight was saying (emphasis mine):
In other words, everypony is receiving this, not just the at-risk population. The story then added that additional payments are made for those who are active contributors, so that increases the outflow of cash. You did walk this back (in the comments, not the story) somewhat, by suggesting that extremely well-to-do ponies don't receive the stipend, and that income taxes are a thing, but that's still not going to be enough to allow for a universal basic income. That's markedly different from "welfare," which is only for those who aren't able to support themselves otherwise.
If you were talking about welfare only, then that's a different thing altogether.
EDIT: You said:
Except she doesn't say that until the next chapter. In this chapter, what she says is:
Socialism has nothing to do with welfare. If welfare was what you meant all along, then the combination of Twilight and Linda's comments were enough to suggest something very, very different.
7908976 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Permanent_Fund
Alaska already pays everyone money. It has also failed to implode. I just want you to stop saying 'it can't be done' in favor of 'It hasn't been done' or 'it might be difficult', then throw in a dash of generally cooperative magical ponies with a lawful innate bent and imagine how it could work. That aside, Twilight's reply was a simple one for sake of conversation. She never struck me as a pony that delved hard into matters of governance, even as a princess. Let's not get hung up there.
7909011
Alaska is also the state that's most heavily subsidized by the federal government. To quote the linked article:
Now, part of that is for that state having the second-highest defense spending, but it also has the second-highest subsidizing for wages and salaries. Both of which underline the point: Alaska isn't paying for itself. The federal government is reallocating funds received from other states to it. If that weren't the case, Alaska would be in serious trouble.
At this point I'm not sure we've even hashed out what the "it" is. If you're saying that a state can pay for a welfare program entirely via (income) taxes, then I agree. If you're saying that a state can institute a universal basic income, then I also agree, just not that it can be entirely funded off of domestic income taxation.
Oh, I agree that Twilight is terrible at actual governance. I just thought that getting hung up there was the point, as per the following chapter's author's note.
7909049 My point was that Twilight's words are far from the bottom line. She says 'Everyone gets money!' because that's how she thinks of it. Has she ever worked a day in her life? Aside of being a librarian for a little while, no. She went from student to part-time worker, to princess.
7909161 That's fine; there's nothing wrong with suggesting that Twilight has bad information - we heard her repeatedly insist that curses don't exist in Bridle Gossip, and yet King Sombra's making the Crystal Empire vanish was described as being exactly that - but if that's the case, then that's not being made apparent in the context that we were given. I suppose I could have presumed that to begin with, but I prefer to work within a given context, rather than necessitating that it be wrong.
Even if Twilight's statement had been accurate, the economic policy she was describing was viable. It just wasn't viable if you restricted it to income taxes alone. There could have been a lot of fun exploring how Equestria was funding such a massive system otherwise.
7909195 Keeping it to income tax only was your idea. There is also such a thing as a difference between 'oppressive' and 'any' tariffs, unless you are a staunch 'Free trade or death!' advocate. There's also real estate tax, sales tax, estate tax (Filthy Rich has one final service to Equestria), and countless others.
7909233 Actually, my initial response discussed several other ideas besides taxation; limiting it to that revenue stream only was done in your response. Moreover, that response only discussed taxation as a result of work, which is income taxation (to be fair, you did discuss sales tax also, but that was it). Those other taxes you mentioned aren't a bad idea, but they're not going to be notably helpful either, since they tend to tax only the notably affluent, who are going to make up only a small percentage of the population, and who typically won't scale with population growth (unless you get into instances of an expanding economy resulting in more money being present as time goes on, but that comes with necessary inflation as the presence of more money means that its purchasing power goes down).
I raised a bow - I raised a brow (unless True/Linda are threatening to shoot her with a harmless cupid's arrow.)
down and around a spiral - down and around in a spiral
my horn a moment - my horn for a moment
Starlight withdraw from my horn gently - Starlight withdrew gently from my horn (such innuendo!
)
My cheeked warmed - My cheeks warmed
spraying sparks a moment - spraying sparks for a moment
However did she managed - However did she manage
our health of long term potential - our health or long term potential
Invasive is one term for Starlight's enhanced teaching technique, intimate would be another...
7913059 Fixed! Somepony may or may not have a bit of a crush.
"Pay me to shoot you in the face with a magical arrow of dubious origin."
Gotta say love this depiction of equestrian society