Happiness: Spending or Specialists?

[wisecat]

Does anyone know, what is actually more effective in the long-run economic management - keeping people happy by spending some of the cash on happiness (I mean spending assigned through the Domestic Adviser screen) and thus cutting spending on science or cash inflow OR keeping the people happy by creating specialists in cities - and thus harvesting stuff from one square less?

Any advice/suggestion will be appreciated!

[DarkMatter]

I usually go with about 10% funding to entertainment under a democracy (or 20% if I plan on starting a war). In most of my cities, that creates about 3-6 happy faces. Also, build a marketplace in every city (duh), as it increases tax revenue by 50% (which will help offset some of the money lost by your spending on entertainment), plus it makes luxuries much more useful.

[kmj]

luxuries, luxuries, luxuries...

find em, trade for 'em, war for 'em, just get 'em! Generally, once you've got about 5 luxuries, you're golden. Then build a marketplace, it makes luxuries more affective when you have more (different types of) luxuries. Then build temples and cathedrals, try to get the Sistine Chapel. I would loathe to ever have to increase my entertainment funding beyond 0%. On a case by case basis, where disorder occurs, use entertainers to keep the city happy while you build a happiness improvement to fix it.

[StarGazer]

Histograph Happiness

If one is aiming for a histograph victory, isn't it better to have every city celebrating "We Love the King Day" for as many turns as possible? And thus, wouldn't it be best to set the luxury tax to 20%? That's what I've been doing.

[DarkMatter]

Well, depending on the difficulty level, funding would need to be increased. Four additional unhappy citizens per city is a big difference.