Every good that is produced has to be immediately consumed. There is no way to stockpile goods. I believe this is the primary issue that mostly causes the other problems.
If you consume more goods than you produce, the price of the good goes up. On the contrary if you produce more than you consume, the price goes down. That's it.
If for example you produce 100 fabric in cotton plantations and then consume 180 to make clothes in a factory, the only drawback is reduced profits due to high fabric price. 80 units of fabric missing won't harm the production of clothes in the factory whatsoever.
Railways chug engines (apparently the trains have to be replaced with new ones every week).
(note: IG = interest group)
The personal ideology of IG leaders dictate what laws the entire IG supports. If for example a reactionary ass IG gets a progressive leader then the whole IG suddenly becomes progressive.
The Armed forces IG gets its political strength from wealth and votes just like anyone else, even though they should probably have more due to controlling the unliving machines.
Thanks for reading my ramble. Does anyone else get annoyed by these type of things?
The probable reason as to why you can't stockpile goods is the same reason money became scarce at the endgame in vic2: the AI hoards it.
You think it's bad that other countries don't extract the basic resources your economy needs? Now imagine they are stockpilling it too...