The Art of Eating Babies: A modest 20% tax proposal

Day 2,797, 12:04 • Published in Canada Canada • by Azarius Theron
Full title (because it would not fit above):

The Art of Eating Babies: A modest 20% work tax proposal for preventing the poor new players in eCanada from being a burden on old players or country, and for making them beneficial to publicly funded wars

Musical theme: Hungry Face by Mogwai

There has been a lot of griping in the media lately from miserly players about a ‘failed’ work tax. Before that, the complaints were from elite payers about having to pay for wars out of their own pockets. Before that, the complaints were from the raving warriors about how boring eCanada was without its own wars. And before that, eCanada simply had Rylde to contend with.

The base problem at the root of that cycle of discontent is a lack of money. With enough resources, eCanadians would be productively engaged in reshaping the New World to their liking, gobbling up whatever resource bonuses they desire, which in turn would make them more money, and so the cycle upwards towards wealth, happiness, and freedom from boredom would be assured.

But how can eCanada tap into its hidden reserves of cash that can unlock this prosperous and glorious future? Quite simply, the future is in your babies.

Right now you’re doing it wrong. New player assistance programs and mutually beneficial communes and other such hand-holding schemes are draining eCanada of resources that would be better directed towards funding wars and keeping the real warriors happy. Face it, the clash of Division 4 titans is the main event and Division 1-3 is just window dressing to give new gold-buyers a reason to start playing. Why waste your time and money trying to grow babies when you should be directly feeding your true fighters instead? It is time to start culling the herd of hapless new players and misguided WAMers and using their tax dollars to fund the real fights.


baby, do you even lift those gloves?

It is good to sacrifice the young and foolish when you expect no future. This has been the general business model for eRep anyhow: cultivate a strong early community and then reap away at what’s been sown. Many agree the game is dying so there is no harm in hastening certain parts of it to your advantage.

You can see this decline in the number of new players who rise to leadership roles in eCanada. Take a look around. eCanada is raising up fewer babies into political leaders. Cabinets vary little from one candidate to the next. eCanada’s social/political climate has matured and the strength of its established players is where the only real growth occurs.

New players that happen to keep playing do so because they like the military module of the game (not the political, economic, or media/social modules). These clickers have little voice in the game, so you will barely notice their diminished numbers. Because they will barely complain and will instead vote with their feet by leaving the country or game entirely, there is little political damage in chowing down on the meaty bits of their worker tax.


In eCanada, there should be no shame in pursuing a proper diet

Self-sufficiency and profitable business is old news. With the many gold rewards from battles, the real money is in fighting wars (read Elite Druid’s article for a clearer picture on this). Unfortunately, wars cost money. Private donors can provide this money, yet why ask prominent fighters to give more when they should be investing their efforts in combat. Public donors can provide this money through war bonds and similarly organized programs, yet it will require public confidence and the bond credibility. Better yet, unwitting and unwilling donors can provide this money through taxes. There’s no pandering to fickle egos or trusting in war bonds; it’s just a click’n’collect format with little hassle to manage.

Now a brief word from our sponsors:

This 20% Work Tax message is endorsed by 2014’s Top Tater, simulare, who agrees we need to go all in or gtfo altogether

Of all the click’n’collect taxes, Work Tax offers the greatest short-term reward. Import taxes already generate little income and imports dry up quickly when taxes go up. VAT should bring in the big bucks, but the problem is that it’s just too easy to buy elsewhere with lower prices. Work Tax has a captive taxpayer because the majority of people won’t change citizenship just to save a few bucks, and if you’re lucky, new players who barely understand the game won’t even see they are paying 20% per click.



There are three types of fare on the Work Tax platter:

1. Top sirloin steak -- So far you’ve been milking the WAMers out of a few tax dollars each day, which has not been a bad arrangement. Nevertheless, self-sufficient players who have played for a long time have developed a robust number of companies from which large cuts of meaty tax can be gained. The downside is that they’ve grown wiser over the years, making them a tough steak for the taxman to dine on. Quite simply, such cattle will simply shut down production when they see the math no longer adds up. Does that mean they’ll begin purchasing from the market again, offering up smaller morsels of sales tax to fatten the country’s belly? Not necessarily so, since they’re not a captive consumer, and will purchase from whatever market gives them the best deal.



2. The casual two-clucker – on again, off again, maybe purchasing the odd booster pack, yet likely just pecking away on free clicks and an easy income from the job market. Think of these as the poultry of the tax bounty. The best idea would be to raise them over the long term for a regular supply of eggs. The downside is that only a small percentage from workclicks will allow taxman to collect a steady number of these easy eggs. We all know real fighters don’t get ripped on eggs; it takes tasty chicken to build muscle. As we also all know, eRep is better geared toward headless chickens, and so you should follow Plato’s lead on this one. Jacking up the WT to 20% is akin to dragging out the ol’ chopping block. When the two-cluckers cash runs short, they won’t be sticking around. That’s a sure decapitation. But by then eCanada will have reaped the rewards of culling the clickers and great wars will be sure to follow.



3. The other white meat -- more tender and more nourishing than the two-cluckers is the veal of eCanada. These are the players who drop in to the game on a whim, play for a short time, living a miserable life pent up in a small box of fulfilling Plato’s starter missions. They have no knowledge about the greater game beyond that box, where the ‘second life’ of eRep comes alive on forums and shouts and PM threads. These players will never venture into such pastures and will simply die off with little consequence unless you make use of their futile existence.



As the tax tenders of eCanada, it is your job to see that the gold pumped into new players from easy early missions can fatten them for the killing you’ll make on a 20% Work Tax. It is only fitting the real warriors dine on the finest meat as they ride to victory in wars funded by these most deliciously edible veal babies.

In their short and miserable lives, the only useful thing they can give you is a meal ticket to the next True Patriot feast. They have no understanding of the difference between a 5% or 20% Work Tax. They offer no social or political advantage. They are expendable and renewable as long as fresh blood registers each day.

Indeed, the true holy grail in this game has always been the elusive baby boom. The greatest leader that eCanada can ever know will be the one that pairs 20% WT with the cornucopia of a veal boom for eCan’s veteran players. It’s a match made in heaven for the eDinosaur’s diet. With a simple 10% increase, you will already be halfway to that paradise and the other half is sure to follow