If A Tree Falls...

Day 2,188, 15:37 • Published in USA USA • by Mattoze5

Dear eAmericans,

Unfortunately despite some improvements made over the past month, there are still many issues that have gone neglected….and among all this, congress is still looking for ways to take more of your hard earned money (sort of like RL 😛 )

And with that in mind, I’d like to announce my candidacy and return to congress.

It’s about time that a legitimate opposition candidate make it into congress and play some real devil’s advocate.
If elected, here is what I plan:

CUT TAXES EVERYWHERE



--I don’t know how many of you have noticed but the work tax is still at 10% and congress has been silent about this issue since it lost by 1 vote last session.
-Side note: The only real mentioning of taxes was about raising the VAT taxes on moving tickets so that the CBO could benefit off sales from people selling the free ones Plato has been handing out.

--Realistically in order to self-sustain one’s account without buying gold with RL money, one would have to buy low and sell high, which for many younger players can get quite complicated and take forever. In order to obtain a company that regularly makes a profit, one would have to spend about 200 Euro or just a little over $270 of RL money. (In order to purchase the Q5+ company and/or any other fees). I find this to be ridiculous. Question: Why would anyone want to keep playing eRep in eAmerica when they can go play Eve Online, spend less than half the price in RL cost to self-sustain their account, and play a way more interactive game? This is bad for game retention all the way around

--If I get elected to congress my first proposal will be to bring the work tax to 5%. If it fails, I will propose it again, and will keep doing so.

MORE ACCOUNTABILITY and TRANSPARENCY


--There needs to be greater accountability and transparency for the actions taken in congress. Lately too often it seems that congress has its own agenda quite different from that of the rest of the country (again sort of like RL.)

--A large part of the problem is the meta-game (stuff that goes on outside of the bounds of erepublik.com) I feel the meta-game needs to be reduced. There are two sides to this coin: Some say the meta-game helps to decipher who the real active players are, and others say it dissuades people from participating because it over-complicates things. I tend to agree with the latter. We’ve come to rely so much on the meta game that now we can’t even have regular elections in-game anymore without rigging of some kind. That’s not to say there shouldn’t be primaries (now that congress is a slate I think they’re even more necessary) But to hold the actual elections ahead of time on a forum board with maybe only 2% of the in-game players participating and then calling any other opponents on real election day a potential PTO is outrageous. And how many times were these “PTO candidates” not Ajay? Who knows.

--Now I understand that there need to be precautions taken all the way around to prevent threats foreign (TWO) and domestic (RGR) but never should the freedom of the in-game player jeopardized or altered for that purpose. Now I must give credit to the excellent media outreach that has gone on to bring people into the picture through in-game papers and private messages. However as a newly elected member of congress I will be proposing measures to make more discussions public and heralded to the people in-game.

EXPERIENCED and FEARLESS


That title is a misnomer 😉 I have a lot to learn in this game. Even though I have been here a while I am not so foolish as to believe that I know everything and have stopped learning (especially since the game keeps changing). Nor am I completely fearless: Of course I fear what people might think when I speak out in congress.

But the real major difference is about who lets fear and experience stop them.
It won’t stop me!
It didn’t stop me from writing this!
It didn’t stop me from running for congress, POTUS, and Party President!
It didn’t stop me from leading the CvP!
And so long as I keep my account in this game it won’t stop me from returning to Erepublik to help my home country: eAmerica!


Please vote for the Federalists on the 25th and continue to encourage them to let me run for congress this time around. eAmerica desperately needs a legitimate alternative voice in congress, let me be yours.

Thank you and,
God Bless eAmerica,
Mattoze5