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This article is a "grab bag" covering a few topics; I first want to mention that I have been tapped to replace Jack Flufferton as the Media and Journalism instructor at North American University. If you want to learn more about journalism in this game, then definitely consider enrolling.
Second, I am providing a summary of all my eRep innovation articles for recent subscribers. You can either go back and review them, or enjoy these bite-sized recaps of 8 interesting articles (I had not realized I wrote that many innovation articles this month 😃). Finally, I have three economic suggestions, and would be open to more innovative ideas from you all.

Recap
Since writing the “Admins: We Want Nukes!” article (subsequently deleted by the powers that be) that inadvertently turned me into the dean of the Department of Wizardry and Magick according to the Socialist Freedom Press (a great daily summary newspaper, by the way), I have released these proposals and in-game improvements in the past month:
-A Nuclear Proposal: Fairly self-explanatory. I laid out the proposal on how nuclear weapons would be built, funded, and what their capabilities and limitations would be.
-Science & Technology in eRepublik: I introduced the concept of “Science” as a skill industry in the nuclear article, and worked out how this skill community and its products would fit into the game.
-Strength and War: This article covered something that had been bothering me for a while: that people can go days without training, but their strength isn’t affected. So, “atrophy” would weaken inactive citizens, while “exertion” benefits would incentivize consistent fighting with additional strength.
-Fighting Styles in eRep Battles: Proposed 5 different fighting modes that would change how much experience, damage, or how frequently a soldier could fight in a battle.
-eRep Mass Transit: Inspired by a message from samdoo, I developed an idea for Railroads as a new infrastructure that governments could invest in to link regions or allied countries.
-Getting Defensive in eRep Battles: Offered 6 suggestions on how to change the aspects of defense and retreating regions in battle. Also added ideas on concealing or otherwise disabling an enemy’s ability to fight for a short period of the battle time.
-Bringing Civil War to eRep: TruthinessHurts shared a great proposal he introduced on adding civil wars. I developed this idea further, adding a “Governors” aspect, hypothetical options for the seceded state, and strict requirements preventing lulz civil wars or Ajay Bruno-like power struggles.
-Passports, and Continuing to Protect the eUSA and EDEN: The first part of this article introduced passports as a feature of citizens’ bios, so that people can see what eCountries they have evisited. This would be valuable for reviewing citizenship applications, and just a fun way to see who gets around in this game (pun intended).

Economic Ideas
I have been trying to develop an economic innovation proposal for a while, but keep hitting snags on how to best address what I see to be the three major issues of eRep economics: devalued currency because people can buy gold with RL money (obviously not something that the admins would want to remove), irresponsible businesses that offer wages and prices that keep themselves perpetually losing money, and an inability to differentiate goods on the market except by their price and quality level. The last point reinforces the second point, because the only way to distinguish one product is to sell it for less; so "success" on the market often means performing at a deficit. Even though I see the problem, I did not want to try and diversify food and other products with other criteria (I was thinking of different types of benefits for different weapon and food products, but what I had thought up wasn't good enough in my mind). The three ideas I did publish, though, should be worth considering. My main goal was to prevent dead weight in the eUSA and other economies by giving companies and business owners more opportunity in getting gold back if they were frustrated with their company. There are other economic policies that should be changed in-game, but I am not going to touch those topics until at least the day that I choose to seek political office (which will probably not be in the near future-- I like the military too much 😃).

Tunneling
This would actually be an economic innovation and not military, although the name may be misleading. The idea behind a “tunneling” economy would be that a business could sell their goods and products to a market that is embargoed by the business’ home country. It would cost 1/2 a regular license’s value, and to avoid open attribution, the company tunneling another country's market would only be able to sell to companies that produce the same product, so that the host company could then resell it in their market-- basically a form of laundering. Detection by the country that levied the emargo, however, would result in a harsh fine-- maybe 25% of an organization’s value-- and forced revocation of that tunneling “license.”
Apart from affording companies new business opportunities, this option would add to increased creativity from business owners on where they can sell. The diplomatic implications could also be pretty high, as one country knowingly and willingly tunneling another country with whom it has an embargo could be “fightin’ words” and lead to war.

Liquidation
One of my good in-game friends and former co-officer within the ranks of the eUSA Mobile Infantry, Oloff Hammeraxe, proposed a “liquidation” option for businesses that were having trouble staying afloat (or just for business owners who wanted to call it quits and get some gold back). Such an option would be beneficial by allowing company owners the chance to get some of their gold back and then be able to buy new products or try a different company, instead of only posting their companies for sale and leaving a “graveyard” of dead businesses that waste gold.
There are currently over 300 companies for sale in the eUSA; although some are probably profitable businesses and being sold at a profit, the majority are likely failed and just a waste of resources. If each of those companies are being sold for 18 gold (let’s say), then that is 5400 gold that is not being used in the eUSA economy.
Liquidating one’s company would mean that the company in question would be deleted, and the person or organization who owned that company would get a payment (maybe 75% or 80% the company’s value) as compensation, rather then having to post a for sale that may not happen.

Corporations
An upgrade of the general Organization idea would be to develop eRep corporations, where multiple users would be able to invest in, and decide on, a corporation’s holdings and business ventures. I see a number of benefits in this sort of arrangement, including:
-Corporations would be able to draw from more resources, and could incorporate more savvy businessmen and women. The ability to draw on multiple perspectives and sources of input, similar to military planning, would allow businesses to look more down the road and be better able to anticipate market changes, as well as the things that would be necessary to keep their business ventures profitable.
-Corporations would also be able to better institutionalize the idea some organizations currently use, of offering people to donate money as ‘investors’ or ‘shareholders’ for their companies. In the corporation model, a list of the executive members would be posted, along with an indication of what percentage they have invested in the company (in gold). This would determine their percentage of profits, and keep the majority holder more accountable.
-Along with this investor concept, corporations would allow newcomers to enter the business world at a lower cost and risk of failure. They could buy a minority stake in a corporation, see if they like the business world, and then sell their share if they got tired of business. Such an arrangement would keep from companies stagnating, and would also allow newcomers to business to learn from more established tycoons.
-Members of a corporation would be able to vote on matters of major business policy, such as buying or selling a company, changing a company’s product quality, buying a new business license, and determining which markets would be a company’s primary market to sell in. However, either the majority holder, or alternatively, an elected “Chairman of the Board” would be the day-to-day boss that determined wages, product prices, etc. The “Chairman” would have the ability to micromanage a corporation by appointing people to manage other companies under the corporation on his/her behalf, after getting these individuals approved by a majority of the corporation’s shareholders.

Closing up
It feels good to be innovating again after my brief foray into political coverage. Hope you all have enjoyed the recap of my past month of brainstorming, as well as this latest economic proposal. I do not claim to know everything and know I don’t, so if an economic-minded person is out there with their own innovations, feel free to PM me and I will make sure your ideas are included and that you receive credit.
With the war against Japan looming, I imagine my next few articles will be more focused in that area. But I hope you’ve enjoyed this article, and if you are new to my paper, will consider subscribing 🙂.


God Bless America,


Lt. Scheisskopf