On the Topic of Funding and Taxes

Day 1,521, 15:37 • Published in Ireland Japan • by Loouman

This article is written by Seanan published by me...




There is often a lack of substance in the media. eUK hasn't done anything nearly as interesting as when we were wiped, so thats been a dead end. Our media response to current events appears to be waiting your turn to have Dan Breen rub your.. back (while sub'ing so you don't miss your turn, ofc). My last proper log into our media, I made the mistake of overloading with topics. Although thank you MikeBane for the Ubermensch Award (German for superman +/- btw). This time, I'm going to stick to one topic: MUFC92's Funding Irish MU Scheme (or FIMS.. come up with a better name later). There is a competition at the end, which is funded by me because I'm selfless and I hope it will make you laugh by the irony (however, you'll need to read the entire article to understand how to win).



Lets begin.
I'll point out that I may have bias in this scheme as I am a member of one of MUs which have been marked out for funding, The Irish Army. The Saltpeter Mine scheme I have no vested interest, my Turkish citizenship means I can't benefit from the scheme. As for taxes, none of the tax changes had any effect on me directly. Feel its important to point these out in case anyone deems it significant.

Opening statement: I fully support the funding of state controlled armies
Skipping past the vast amounts of IEP the late Irish Defence Force (IDF) received before reform, the Irish Army (IA) received a budget of 10,000 IEP per month during the first 2-3 months of its creation. The budget was eventually scrapped when our banks ran dry due to the maintaining the MPP shack in order to battle the eUK. Anyone on my friend list would know I asked/bugged every Irish Taoiseach since that moment whether there was any surplus IEP left after MPP renewal. While the answer was no, the fact I asked could be perceived oddly without explaining the underlying political viewpoint.

I believe the elected Taoiseach has a mandate to determine the best course of action to defend our country. In terms of military coordination, national defence involves communication with other nations - which an unelected government will have no credibility in the international circles (EDEN HQ, for example, would not let them in the chatrooms). The IDF had a defined commitment to the Taoiseach, when combined with the Irish Citizen Army (ICA), all of eIreland's military force (at the time) were now under that commitment in the IA. Before the reform, ICA did not receive a cent (bar what they stole 😮) while the IDF did. The reason was obvious: IDF fought where the State told it too, the ICA did not.

If an army fights where the State tells them too, they are a State Army.

None of this is held within game mechanisms, some perceive these deductions as roleplaying/pure political; While game mechanisms certainly do not determine state armies, game mechanisms are also impartial to logic and gaming style. You vote for a man/women to lead your country, whoever wins then has to do that job as they are the only one with the game mechanisms to control which regions our country attacks - Anyone been elected will know the worth of having a military unit which will fight where its asked. Paramilitaries do not have to follow the Taoiseach's orders, they might but they might not. Depends on varying reasons, like disagreement of strategy, engaged in another battle or could be dislike of the CP etc etc. As I said in my article featuring basic strategy, the chosen strategy will be successful if the damage needed to overcome the enemies' strength is available. Ensuring that availability needs thinking outside the GameMech-box; State armies. Its the notion of stronger united - weaker divided.

Now that I've addressed why State Armies are important for defence, what about MUFC92's scheme?

SaltPeter Mines
I don't know the criteria. I haven't asked for it, but it should be provided for public view. The Irish Army before has offered a grant to any member who takes part in Starkad Rorlikson's loans (mail him about that). Does this scheme require the applicant put up some of their own cash? At the moment, it doesn't seem too. Good/bad? Someone else can write about that.

Taxes
My only contribution to the Irish Market is selling Wep-RM, and buying Food-RM (Our lack of production bonuses have our RM market mostly free market so we can support our mainly product based economy). When VAT went up, didn't really do much to me. However, it still caused quite a ruckus. I'm normally pro-tax rises as long as it increases state income while at the same time not make a monopoly of exploiting Irish GMs. I also don't get involved with the discussion, its boring as hell BUT I will attempt to do a calculation for Q5 weapons companies

Costs 285 IEP (+/-) wages for 3 workers (at current offer 95 IEP, been 85 IEP not long ago), if you hire 2 RM workers and 1 production worker. Makes 12 Q5 weapons. Which is 24 IEP cost for each weapon. Current price on market is 38 IEP, which is 28.5 IEP without VAT. Thats 4.5 IEP profit margin per tank. Given thats not the most efficient way of obtaining the RM for production, and my basic math skills... I'm going to say GMs can still make a living, while doing our MPP shacks a whole lot of good. However, I'm sure there better numbers you can oogle at, so if you have an issue with my calculation take it up with Sweet Drinker.

Irish MU funding
First looking at face value of how the military units selected are funded; Its not been very well explained. I haven't asked again but then I'm being stubborn and making the point I shouldn't have too. However, looking at the comments, the amount given is not based on total troop numbers in the MU (which would be silly. The funding is aimed to improve the damage of troops supplied - the troops getting supplied will be different to the total MU membership count, in most cases). Funding appears to be related to covering (or partly covering) the cost of RM production, and I personally know our Taoiseach has asked commanders for a list of the companies in use. Its more than likely, the amount given will be calculated by dividing the IEP available by the percentage each MU requires in RM. I.e. Total RM required of all MUs = 10,000 RM units. MU-A needs 7000 RM Units (70😵, MU-B needs 3000 RM units (30😵. Therefore, MU-A gets 70% of the available IEP pot. I'm sure it will be explained on launch.

Now, onto to the Military Units selected for funding:
The Irish Army (IA), Irish Citizen Army (ICA), and Labour's Army (LA).
Now, I've explained what the basic criteria is to be a State Army. Why do State armies get State funding? The answer is State Armies' damage are the State's assets. Improving the damage they can direct into the battles is more useful, than improving the damage they can not direct.

Irish Army is the obvious state army, its roots are from the IDF - the first real state army, I'd argue. Irish Citizen Army became part of the Irish Army on creation, it later reformed for reasons including no one really stepping up to take the CoS position off me (Thank god for MUFC92 and Conway), however adopted the ICA uniform which included the Department of Defence logo as part of their continued commitment. Labour's Army being a State army is news to me, I thought they were very much independent from the State but its welcomed news - Always had a space or two in my companies to help them out.

Now, people might get the impression that I'm personally picking and choosing which MU is considered a State Army, previously the Irish Army was the only State Army. What happened? Misconceptions of what the Irish Army is. When the IA was created, it brought together the only active Irish MUs operating. There was only one army. Over time, more military units have popped up - like the ICA reforming, or the LA forming. Reasons may be political, I know Labour's Army members are mainly Left-Wing. Irish Army doesn't have an ideology bar fight where the Taoiseach/MoD tells you too, might not be as attractive to some people, don't know. eIreland is not like the eUSA, the Irish Army or any other MUs seem to use smokinghotsexy women as a recruitment tool. I think that is because we are of a higher maturity.



Its at this point, no one really made it clear what the difference between the Irish Army and the other MUs was. Likely my fault. The difference was that the name Irish Army was first coined as an umbrella term - If you fight where the State tells you to fight, you are part of the Irish Army.

This was simple when there was only one body which fought where the State said. It is obviously different now, and if I was more active I would have wrote about it sooner. In essence, "The Irish Army" is the title. Next down, you got sub-groups: The ICA, LA and what I'd call the Regulars. Regular because they have no political faction in the Army. To finish off what I mean by umbrella term, I'll illustrate by showing you the picture I sent to Patrick O'Leary a long time ago.


Which leads me on to my next point: Why is E.A.M.U. not selected for funding? I have this sinking feeling that either their communes are currently inactive, or they don't have significant production assets. Which is a shame, because out of all the Irish MUs which have a commitment to the State, they are the ones which have it clearly written down in a mini-constitution on their forums.

As for other Irish MUs, obviously they need to make themselves known - Think I've covered them all. I understand I have not mentioned Libertad-Ire, reasons why should become clear. I could do another spread on Libertad-Ire but I'd actually need to research it first. The conclusions of Croatia-Mexico incident from what was said is they are an international unit - with a branch based in eIreland, but not exactly an eIrish MU. They can't have commitment to the State because they are already committed to the main Libertad group, I'd personally say. Croatia-Mexico is an example of a conflict of commitments, North Dakota was another - ND resolved eventually when the ICA changed its commitment to the State. Don't know how a Libertad-Ire member entering the Dail, or any part of government works on that whole commitment thing but something I'd gladly interview about. Personally, I think I've said enough to invite heated ragers. Its complex, but unless you have a mercenary approach to Libertad-Ire members (i.e. supply them as individuals for battles you what them to fight in) no government can justify funding a military unit which can tell it to bugger off.

Saying that for across the board. The ePolish government did not fund the ePolish proEDEN Military Unit Polska Organizacja Wojskowa (POW). Conflict of commitments, even though the unit never fought against Poland.

This very much ends my opinion of MUFC92's Funding Irish MU Scheme. I have an overall approval of the scheme, I dont think its has alot of information about it out at the moment but that is likely to change as it comes nearer the launch date. But in order to end on a high, and not a boring read, I have a competition just below the next paper barrier.