"No country in the world is selling its population. It would be a crime against humanity." LOL

I agree, and if this was happening in real life trust me the world would go to war over it.
But, in some forms it does happen. Look at prostetution rings in some countries. Women and children are shipped off from poor countries to western countries and prostituition rings are formed for money.
mmmm! this could be a new feature in simcountry!
Black market dealers of illegal goods, like drugs, prostituion, and other forms of black market goods. This should be done by CEOs only and countries would be the ones buying the goods maybe as a bonus to an index or something.
Anyway thats my spill for a new feature for today! I am always comming up with new ideas and features that simcountry can add, some good some bad amd some just plain morally wrong. <
Throughout history, countries have invaded other countries and taken it's population back to it's own country and empire to be forced labor, servants and to fill it's army ranks. Stop kidding yourselves as if selling population does not related to real world. It does, It always has. It's in man's nature. So why wouldn't it be in a country econ and war game? If you invade a country and win then you should be able to remove it's population back to your country or empires.
The game makes good GC's selling population, why would it want players cutting in on it's GC market? That is why they don't want players selling pop. With the GC market the way it is now selling pop will get even worse as players opt for accumulating Gold ignoring the penalty to avoid using the Visa card. It's business. It's also smart business.
Transferring Population between you empire countries however should not be pena
I haven't paid attention to whether there are pemalties attached to empire pop transfers; if this is happening, I am also dead set against it. Population is the great resource (as GM themselves assert), and to use that resource most efficiently --within--our--own--empire-- should be free, if it is, in fact, not.
I was right in my earlier surmise, it looks like, that GMs are assuming sole control of GC and population in order to play a more active part in the (real) financial aspect of the game. Even though I disagree with the way this is being implemented, i can see the reasoning behind it. I will just repeat what I have said before, that if this is the case (and apparently it is) WHY don't GM admit it in open forum? I think it would clear the air about these issues. If this post is removed or I am banned, you will know that I have hit a nerve somewhere.
Andy, I am only pointing out that conquering large countries with many population with the aim to sell the population and make GC profit from the war was a common event.
Of course now this is not viable as the penalty your empire pays is so high. Hence I say it reduced the instance of war. In my view it reduced war dramatically as well as not being able to raid inactive countries at low war levels where people no longer play SC has.
It is not clear to me which part W3C wishes was never introduced, the actual selling of pop in the first place or the penalty set on selling empires?
Of course I agree with you that it wouldnt happen real world, but this a game, there are many things here that wouldnt happen real world.
And when you say there are many wars going on and many more to come, you will note that most of them are players against the AI or C3s, no longer person v person.
PS. Half the disagreement here is that I call WAR a person v person happening as opposed to C3 fighting. Andy, you call any action war, inclusive of the taking of C3s. Ok, fair enough...but, when you say W3C is encouraging war and planning many changes to make it more exciting and accessible DO YOU INCLUDE PvP WAR? or are you considering C3 wars only?
Do you wish to encourage the skills and knowledge needed for a once important part of the game? Would you rather people only learn high war level C3 fighting?