Work Text:
Welcome to Scenic Hytopia! Ravio is a successful business CEO from a neighboring country. He has been asked to come to Hytopia by Princess Styla herself to act as a temporary financial consultant to the quickly growing country.
Upon his first meeting with the distressed monarch, the situation seems clear. The capitalist country’s economy runs mostly thanks to multiple competing businesses in the fashion industry. These businesses accumulate very large amounts of money, which means that taxing them is like taking a grain of rice from the field: the businesses are essentially free from the burden shouldered by the rest of Hytopia’s citizens. If the Princess raises taxes, the lower class will still face the brunt of taxation without having the money to handle it. Lowering those taxes would do devastating damage to the government, which would not exactly assist the economy.
Now, Ravio is not just any business manager, he runs every aspect of his magical shop chain, including finances. In his country, taxes are not a set fee for everyone, but a value based on a rate. A certain percentage of his business’s income is taxed. At this point, he could just introduce that percentage system to Hytopia, but then Ravio has an Idea.
Two weeks later, when a Hytopian messenger comes to the home Ravio is renting, they find a pile of papers on the floor, with a large graph in the center
*Insert Generic Step Function Graph*
As the messenger is peering at the curious graph, Ravio enters holding a green potion, the magical equivalent of two Red Bulls.
“What does this graph mean?” The messenger can’t help but ask.
They can hear the mad grin beneath his hood as Ravio answers. “This, my friend, is a tax bracket.”
Unfortunately, random messengers are not that interested in complex algebra pertaining to financial systems. Ravio has to wait until his next meeting with the Princess to explain his plan.
Luckily, the messenger has come to inform him that said meeting was moved to this very day.
When Ravio arrives at the castle he wastes no time introducing his master plan: Every citizen will be taxed at a set rate, which will increase based on how much income is made by that person. The graph, as he shows, represents the relationship of the tax rate by percent (y) and income in thousands of rupees (x). This relationship is also expressed in the function y=2(x-2).
Styla immediately approves the plan and in months the government can finally keep up with the growing needs of its country.
When Ravio returns home, handsomely rewarded for his consultation, he never again speaks of his tax bracket concept. Were his home country ever to adopt it, he might find himself having to pay more money! He simply keeps quiet and continues to expand his chain into an international corporation.