Rapidly dropping approval rating?

from Stardock Forums
Hello all, I apologize if this is a question that has already been asked before, but I haven't found any answers to a question of mine after browsing this forum. Specifically, what exactly affects the overall approval rating that you see under the economics tab? I've had my taxes set to 50% for quite a long time, content with the 80% approval rating I was getting, but over the course of the last 20 turns in the game I'm currently playing my approval rating has suddenly plummeted right through the floor. I've got taxes set to 15%, and I'm still only managing a 55% approval rating. I'm constantly being forced to set my taxes lower and lower, and about the only thing that is keeping my empire from being completely crippled financially is the fact that I'm raking in so much money from trade routes. Still, can anyone tell just what exactly is causing this? Is it destabilization from one of the other races in the game? And if so, how can I stop it? At this rate, all those lazy slackers in my empire are going to be floating by with absolutely NO taxes and STILL looking to oust me out of office.
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Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
YOu need to build morale boosters on your planets (entertainment network) etc. Approval is tied to morale.

As long as you're at a reasonable tax rate, Lowering taxes is only a temporary and indeed self-defeating solution since you won't have money and will go into debt (debt lowers morale hehe) Furthermore, your peeps will come to expect it, so lowering, then. raising them will lower morale more than if you'd just left them there to begin with. The ultimate source could be destabilization or just not enough of those morale boosters.

Its a continuous cycle. Happiness breeds pop which lowers happiness. You gotta keep up those boosters.
Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
Yes, as they reproduce wildly in all the excitement of your new morale booster, and quickly become overpopulated again, causing the morale to drop again.

I believe if you keep your morale around 60% it will be more consistent, but you won't get the population growth.

It all depends on what you're trying to do. Do you want your population to grow at this point of the game? If yes, then keep morale high, and building more morale boosters to keep it high.
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
Be happy with a 55% morale rating. It's good enough. But you'll want to continually build morale boosters to increase the populations on your planets.
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
55% is pretty good. From what I understand, you want to keep morale above 40% to avoid revolts. Having morale well above that level gives you a cushion. Also higher morale gives you a more rapid population growth (I think that you get a big bonus at 100% and growth slows down dramatically at 54% - someone please correct me if I'm wrong), and income is based partially on population. I think 50% is a pretty good tax level since the morale drop caused by tax is the tax level squared (e.g; 40% tax means 16% morale penalty). When you get much above that level the extra tax income doesn't seem to offset the morale loss. Your race picks could change this, I'm not sure. You could also experiment with giving planets propaganda money, and see if this gives you better ultimate results.

Later in the game make sure you are investing in espionage. There is a good chance that you could be the target of another race's destabilization efforts.

Good Luck!
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
Despite it being a trendy political line these days, in Galciv tax cuts are bad news. 50 is a high rate and should be dropped to 40 or even 30 if you are feeling nice, but never get into a tax cut spiral to solve morale problems. Draw where that bottom tax line is and stick to it. If 35 is the magic number, you can start the game higher and slowly lower it down, but not below 35. If an economic boom happens and you decide that you are rolling in cash so you will cut taxes, think again. Is this going to be a 15% tax cut that you will have to rescind later when the boom ends, but the people have already multiplied so that the morale consequences will devestate you, or a permanent 5% cut that you can live with for the rest of the game, barring any super-spectacular increases in empire-wide morale?
Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top
35 is also a magic number for 'efficiency" - at over 35, you get less spend per bc of income (it is incremental) - I suppose this is the inefficient bureaucracy of large government...

~SDC~