The Economist - Elections Special Edition
Day 492, 10:16
•
Published in United Kingdom 
•
by
•
by Spite313
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Leaders ~ Editorial
Welcome to another edition of the Economist. Sorry if it's a little long and a little late this week- it takes a while to wade through all of the congress results. It's been an exciting week in British politics, with 6th place party LSD quickly catching up with 5th place IFTP. Although the LSD didn't make it to 5th place in time to contest the congress elections, they still qualify for four seats through the small parties legislation. The means that the MDU, LSD and IFTP all have four seats in the in-forum votes.
In Europe this week we saw the Romanians take back the West Siberian Region and also push into Northern China. Those of you wondering why the Romanians have taken such a circuitous route need only look at Xinjiang region of Indonesia, which borders the WSR, and the Q5 Defence System and hospital the region contains. By going in a circle round Mongolia the Romanians avoid fighting their way through one of the toughest regions in eRepublik. With over four hundred Atlantis soldiers currently residing in Romanian regions, many of them elite troops, we can expect to see more Romanian victories in the near future. Whether they will succeed in pushing Indonesia and Iran back into the Pacific Ocean and re-establishing China as they promised is another thing.
Across the pond we saw Uncle Sam impeached as President of the United States. Last month Uncle Sam told us his aim was to “bring a little war to the country”. Well he brought a large war, which has unbalanced the entire region, forced a hasty peace and shaken many American's confidence in their government. The final straw was when Sam reputably spent almost 300 gold of government money on his close friends during the Romano-Indonesian war. We all saw Benn Dover reach an incredible 20 000+ damage, beaten only by Romanian tank Butnaru during the conflict in Siberia.
Leaders ~ Election Special
Yes it's that time again, when we have our elections and we have our results. See the end of the article for a little bit of analysis.
Candidate
Party
Votes
Iain Keers|
|TUP|
|27
TheAwesomeMatt|
|TUP|
--|26
BFSte|
|TUP|--
|25
SaraDroz|
|UKRP|----
|23
Davott|
|UKRP|-
|23
Jan Baykara|
|PCP|
---|21
Ip Lockard|
|PCP|
|18
Leo Ruby|
|TUP-BAP|
----|18
Rasi|
|UKRP|-
|17
ThomasR26|
|PCP|
|15
Scipio the Great|
|PCP|
|15
Kaveha|
|TUP|---
|15
CertaCito|
|UKRP|---
|14
Sam Cook|
|PCP|
--|14
CV James|
|MDU|
---|13
Rastari|
|PCP|--
|13
Jacen Molare|
|TUP|
|13
LordJustice|
|UKRP|
|13
Listhp Tomptos|
|PCP|
|1 2
Vitor Vierra|
|PCP|
---|12
John Forseti|
|TUP|
---|11
Will Salmon|
|MDU|
-|11
Comandante Che|
|IFTP|
|11
Arthur Wellesley|
|UKRP|
|11
Ashley Blakeston|
|TUP|
|10
Iseth Undon|
|UKRP|
|10
SKQ62|
|TUP|----
|9
Jaden87|
|PCP|----
|9
Vyett Ynsydr|
|IFTP|
-|8
Wazzok|
|UKRP|
|8
Oexis|
|MDU|---
|7
Azra'eil|
|MDU|--
|7
Sambo|
|UKRP|
|7
Malta_1990|
|TUP|
|6
R-J C|
|TUP|
|6
Malchert|
|UKRP|
|5
Wildcards
Stefan Dorunga|
|UKRP|
|17
Tas_Pats|
|IFTP|----
|16
Goku Jones|
|IFTP|
--|12
N-a-t-h-a-n|
|UKRP|----
|10
So, Overall we have:
Independent Free Thinking Party---4
People's Communist Party
9
UK Reform Party
12
The Unity Party
11
Movement for Democratic Unity---4
A UKRP comeback by all accounts. But due to the high inactivity of many UKRP people in the part, we wonder exactly how many of these people will turn out to vote in forum? The Unity Party has one inactive congressman, TheAwesomeMatt, for which this author has a personal sense of guilt. Apologies to those London candidates who were unsuccessful.
Britain ~ Ministry of Finance Reform (Update) and our financial situation
A short while ago the Economist posed some questions regarding the proposed reforms to the Ministry of Finance. The Reform Bill has now gone into law, and for those of you who missed it, here it is:
This bill sets down the powers and duties of the Minister of Finance.
1) Duties from http://forums.erepublik.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=716
Ministry of Finance's basic job is controlling the BoE and the local currency through regulation on the money market. Other than that, it also hands out monies to seperate agencies, etc. Basically, this is a position of the utmost importance, and needs someone who can be fully trusted with the funds in the United Kingdom. Seeing as it should be like that, IMO, it should be limited to one person, and that one person needs to be highly active. The only two people in the country that should have the password are the President and MoF.
2)The MoF can temporarily suspend any action going through War Council or the House of Commons (in the voting stages) for a maximum of 24 hours if they believe that the current financial situation will cause issues. In this time the MoF is to consult with the Prime Minister (or acting Prime Minister) where a decision will be made by the Prime Minister on whether to veto or continue the current action.
3) For Cabinet budgets/spending, the MoF has the final say unless it's war funding for the MoD as determined by War Council vote, or explicitly mentioned spending from a congressional proposal. This gives the MoF the power to turn down any request for funds it feels are not necessary. If it is felt the MoF is abusing this power the Prime Minister can over-rule.
4) To ensure that the Ministry is being run effectively the MoF is to produce reports for its spending and income every week. The MoF must also state what actions he is planning to take and what his views are on the current situation. These will be produced and published within the sensitive area of the House of Commons and House of Lords.
The Bill now passed gives greater powers to the Ministry of Finance over war and cabinet budgets. This helps reign in unrestrained spending and rebuild the economy. Our high taxation is slowly rebuilding the economy, and based on estimates made by the Economist our net financial gain recently has been very good, especially in gold. However, the high taxation has spooked the market, and many businesses are now selling at a loss in an attempt to compete. This is partially because businesses had failed to build up a large liquidity prior to the tax change, and thus (ironically) our in-game markets have been caught in a credit crunch.
So what is the likely outcome? Well many shareholders will continue to pump funds into their businesses to keep them functioning. However, more experienced business people are already beginning to lay off employees to save costs until the markets become profitable again. The 20% tax makes withdrawing money from the company expensive, so many foreign investors who regularly withdraw GBP to change it to their own currency (via gold) will find themselves in an unfortunate position.
One solution could be described as the 'Romanian Option'. Because of the game mechanics, two of the four manufacturing industries (weapons and moving tickets) rely almost exclusively on war. A war would bolster our economy, and hopefully introduce an element of fun whilst doing so. However, this could always backfire, leaving us worse of financially and potentially losing face. A second option would be to encourage exportation of goods. Some countries make over five hundred gold a month from exports, something that most UK companies don't experience.
To go back to the original suggestion, one key reason for the eUK being poor is that we have a lack of regions. Services industries are necessarily small in eRep, due to a lack of in-game mechanics for banks, shops and so on. So the eUK economy is mostly Secondary industry. Much like in real life, the eUK is not ideally suited for this. We relied on cheap RM from the empire in the past, and that is what ideally we need to do here. How this is done is a different matter. We can either go hell bent on conquest and invade some innocent countries, or we can make trade deals with them. The first is far easier from a management point of view, but perhaps not from an ethical one. Whichever choice is made, whichever option decided upon, the decision must come soon.
Bagehot ~ Blacklist
As we know yesterday passed us by as the 25th of the month, or congressional elections day. Once a month candidates line up to take on the public vote and every time there is a surprise, a disappointment and a scandal. Most of you take the congress elections seriously and that is good, but we’re not a perfect collection of upstanding citizens. The last few months a candidate called Hurley has ran, won 5 gold and then resigned. Without Hurley running (the watchword for bad congress candidate after last terms shocking resignation one day after being elected), it is difficult to say who if any of the current congress members will be included as “blacklisted” candidates.
The Blacklist was created after the February congressional elections after the election of the now almost legendary Hurley in an attempt to create a publicly viewable list of congressmen you should not vote for. Although this is a very controversial idea, it is a solution to a flaw in the game that prevents Party Presidents de-selecting candidates. It is intended to make the public aware of the candidates who ask for their vote but have done not one thing to deserve that vote.
One of the most important aspects of the current system is that the list is unenforceable. There is no way to make it so that it could in any way prevent candidates from running. It is only a list of candidates that the current Prime Minister believes do not deserve your vote. Of course, at the moment, our Prime Minister does not place just anyone he wishes on the list, only those who have done very real wrong. That could change with our next leader, although it is unlikely.
Some discussion (both recently and long ago) explored the problems with the list. As of this moment the criteria qualifying candidates for the list are somewhat rigi
Hurley- fine, fits the criteria - and EJPayne? As far as we know, and we do know, he fulfils neither of those criteria. He was active and he didn’t resign. But there were congressmen who did resign in the first week of term who are not on the list and there is a plentiful amount of inactive congressmen. Why aren’t they on the list? Well as we said above, this is unenforceable. Anyone is free to run and anyone is free to say that they disapprove of X and that you shouldn’t vote for them. As we see it there should be no criteria attached and we should simply base it on the opinion of the current PM. An opinion that will have some force with the public, as opposed to lesser known congressmen (such as myself).
We feel the list should never be created officially, to make the list enforceable: To legislate to create a list of “bad” congressmen. Enormous difficulties would arise, firstly it could not be simply opinion based, it would have to have an extensive set of criteria that would undoubtedly put the undeserving on it – there is no way to provide for every eventuality. Had we enforced the list based on the criteria as it currently stands, we’d have an ex-PM on the list. The debate on this in the forums was thorough and thankfully no one has attempted to bring any legislation on it and we don’t think anyone will.
The list is imperfect and does throw up some difficult points to contend with, but it is born out of an intention to right a serious wrong. And if it can dissuade even a single voter then it’s job is done.
Scipio the Great
Europe ~ Romania, triumphant
When Romania lost the West Siberian Region every Atlantis soldier in Western Europe sat back in shock. Nobody thought the juggernaut could ever be defeated, even by Indonesia. Since then, Romania has taken a deep breath and rebuilt. The Romanian arms industry was nationalised, all effort was put into war. Now, eventually, the hard work has paid off. Romania has emerged triumphant on the fields of Russia, and the swing of international influence has swung back towards Atlantis.
So what's next for Romania? Well their strategic goals are twofold from what we can tell. Firstly, to take high resource areas and to deny those areas to Indonesia, weakening their enemies economy. Secondly, to continue World War Three as long as possible, to help stimulate their markets. Heilongjiang and Liaoning regions both have high Iron, which would support the Romanian war effort. The former only has five citizens, and so would be an easy pushover. Expansion in the East would be relatively unopposed, and would avoid the choke point the Indonesians have orchestrated at Xingjiang.
The other issue surrounds Romania's Western front. The Hungarians have been accused of political takeover attempts several times in the past few days, and despite denials we must expect some sort of action from the burgeoning power. Their problem with Germany may escalate into a war, and if it does Romania must be prepared to stop them, once and for all.
United States ~ Uncle Sam's last hurrah
The name 'Uncle Sam' brings to mind (in eRep terms) many things. Brash humour, emotive articles and war. It was a relief to many Americans to see him go: the last reminder of a failed war in Mexico. His resignation speech was delivered mid-way through his impeachment, and as such it had a bitter twist to it. But how much of the war and subsequent defeat was Sam's fault? The war was fought entirely on Mexican soil, and in the early days helped stimulate the American economy. The Americans didn't suspect the Portuguese would invade and certainly didn't expect the sound defeat they received.
So what did America do wrong? Firstly, it failed to have an army. Like the UK army, the American army has little direct experience of war. Therefore they were not only physically impaired by low rank, but also logistically ill-prepared to fight an extended conflict. Weapons shortages, poorly trained rank soldiers and not enough high quality hospitals led to the US defeat at the hands of much smaller but more experienced Portugal. Thanks to the help of experienced leader Dishmcds (controversy aside) the Mexicans were able to channel their power to a point, and arguably would have stopped the US without aid from Peace.
This is not to say the USA is a weak nation, but its strength is in its defence. When fighting offensive wars it lacks the staying power and material resources to engineer the kind of rolling conquest practised by Romania. To rebuild their armed forces they need expert advice, from Atlantis generals, on army structure and preparation. They should have Defence Systems ready to drop into captured regions, armies of low level soldiers ready to mobilise to raise a wall. They should have stockpiles of weapons in government companies and moving tickets on demand. Most importantly, they need to shift their focus from a few enormously rich and powerful individuals to a more socialist state, where the power of the army is in its numbers, not in individual strength.
Business News ~ Co-operatives
On a personal note, I wish to add a little comment about a venture of mine. In association with TUP I set up the first co-op business (co-operative gifting company) some weeks ago. Since then we have expanded to include two other companies and are looking at expanding again. Co-operatives are intrinsically socialist, in that the purpose is to run the company for the workers, by the workers. Many of the employees are my close friends, and also shareholders. Although we put in different amounts, the company is jointly owned by us and is run by one of us who has more time than the others.
As a business model it is a strange one. Productivity is guaranteed by the fact that all lose if one does not work. Wages can be dropped if the business isn't doing well. In many cases employees work for just £1 and receive food by donation to keep costs down. This means that it can be incredibly competitive. In addition, the Unity Party constitution grants all co-operative groups the right to affiliate with the Party. This effectively means that any co-op that satisfies the Council of Unity's requirements for entry (co-operative values, equal shareholding by members etc.) can have input on Unity Party policy, help write national manifestos and even have the right to nominate candidates for positions. This helps bring democracy into the workplace, and I certainly find it very fulfilling.
**The Economist**
Top ten political parties by size
1. United States Workers Party|
|USA
2. Magyar Hazafiak Partja|
|Hungary
3. eUniunea Gamerilor Democrati|
|Romania
4. Indonesian Defensive Socialist|
|Indonesia
5. Partidul Liberal|
|Romania
6. Libertarian Party|
|USA
7. UK Reform Party|
|UK
8. Conservative Party|
|USA
9. Szolidaritas Part|
|Hungary
10. Canadian Social Democrats|
|Canada
Leaders ~ Editorial
Welcome to another edition of the Economist. Sorry if it's a little long and a little late this week- it takes a while to wade through all of the congress results. It's been an exciting week in British politics, with 6th place party LSD quickly catching up with 5th place IFTP. Although the LSD didn't make it to 5th place in time to contest the congress elections, they still qualify for four seats through the small parties legislation. The means that the MDU, LSD and IFTP all have four seats in the in-forum votes.
In Europe this week we saw the Romanians take back the West Siberian Region and also push into Northern China. Those of you wondering why the Romanians have taken such a circuitous route need only look at Xinjiang region of Indonesia, which borders the WSR, and the Q5 Defence System and hospital the region contains. By going in a circle round Mongolia the Romanians avoid fighting their way through one of the toughest regions in eRepublik. With over four hundred Atlantis soldiers currently residing in Romanian regions, many of them elite troops, we can expect to see more Romanian victories in the near future. Whether they will succeed in pushing Indonesia and Iran back into the Pacific Ocean and re-establishing China as they promised is another thing.
Across the pond we saw Uncle Sam impeached as President of the United States. Last month Uncle Sam told us his aim was to “bring a little war to the country”. Well he brought a large war, which has unbalanced the entire region, forced a hasty peace and shaken many American's confidence in their government. The final straw was when Sam reputably spent almost 300 gold of government money on his close friends during the Romano-Indonesian war. We all saw Benn Dover reach an incredible 20 000+ damage, beaten only by Romanian tank Butnaru during the conflict in Siberia.
Leaders ~ Election Special
Yes it's that time again, when we have our elections and we have our results. See the end of the article for a little bit of analysis.
Candidate
Party
Votes
Iain Keers|
|TUP|
|27
TheAwesomeMatt|
|TUP|
--|26
BFSte|
|TUP|--
|25
SaraDroz|
|UKRP|----
|23
Davott|
|UKRP|-
|23
Jan Baykara|
|PCP|
---|21
Ip Lockard|
|PCP|
|18
Leo Ruby|
|TUP-BAP|
----|18
Rasi|
|UKRP|-
|17
ThomasR26|
|PCP|
|15
Scipio the Great|
|PCP|
|15
Kaveha|
|TUP|---
|15
CertaCito|
|UKRP|---
|14
Sam Cook|
|PCP|
--|14
CV James|
|MDU|
---|13
Rastari|
|PCP|--
|13
Jacen Molare|
|TUP|
|13
LordJustice|
|UKRP|
|13
Listhp Tomptos|
|PCP|
|1 2
Vitor Vierra|
|PCP|
---|12
John Forseti|
|TUP|
---|11
Will Salmon|
|MDU|
-|11
Comandante Che|
|IFTP|
|11
Arthur Wellesley|
|UKRP|
|11
Ashley Blakeston|
|TUP|
|10
Iseth Undon|
|UKRP|
|10
SKQ62|
|TUP|----
|9
Jaden87|
|PCP|----
|9
Vyett Ynsydr|
|IFTP|
-|8
Wazzok|
|UKRP|
|8
Oexis|
|MDU|---
|7
Azra'eil|
|MDU|--
|7
Sambo|
|UKRP|
|7
Malta_1990|
|TUP|
|6
R-J C|
|TUP|
|6
Malchert|
|UKRP|
|5
Wildcards
Stefan Dorunga|
|UKRP|
|17
Tas_Pats|
|IFTP|----
|16
Goku Jones|
|IFTP|
--|12
N-a-t-h-a-n|
|UKRP|----
|10
So, Overall we have:
Independent Free Thinking Party---4
People's Communist Party
9
UK Reform Party
12
The Unity Party
11
Movement for Democratic Unity---4
A UKRP comeback by all accounts. But due to the high inactivity of many UKRP people in the part, we wonder exactly how many of these people will turn out to vote in forum? The Unity Party has one inactive congressman, TheAwesomeMatt, for which this author has a personal sense of guilt. Apologies to those London candidates who were unsuccessful.
Britain ~ Ministry of Finance Reform (Update) and our financial situation
A short while ago the Economist posed some questions regarding the proposed reforms to the Ministry of Finance. The Reform Bill has now gone into law, and for those of you who missed it, here it is:
This bill sets down the powers and duties of the Minister of Finance.
1) Duties from http://forums.erepublik.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=716
Ministry of Finance's basic job is controlling the BoE and the local currency through regulation on the money market. Other than that, it also hands out monies to seperate agencies, etc. Basically, this is a position of the utmost importance, and needs someone who can be fully trusted with the funds in the United Kingdom. Seeing as it should be like that, IMO, it should be limited to one person, and that one person needs to be highly active. The only two people in the country that should have the password are the President and MoF.
2)The MoF can temporarily suspend any action going through War Council or the House of Commons (in the voting stages) for a maximum of 24 hours if they believe that the current financial situation will cause issues. In this time the MoF is to consult with the Prime Minister (or acting Prime Minister) where a decision will be made by the Prime Minister on whether to veto or continue the current action.
3) For Cabinet budgets/spending, the MoF has the final say unless it's war funding for the MoD as determined by War Council vote, or explicitly mentioned spending from a congressional proposal. This gives the MoF the power to turn down any request for funds it feels are not necessary. If it is felt the MoF is abusing this power the Prime Minister can over-rule.
4) To ensure that the Ministry is being run effectively the MoF is to produce reports for its spending and income every week. The MoF must also state what actions he is planning to take and what his views are on the current situation. These will be produced and published within the sensitive area of the House of Commons and House of Lords.
The Bill now passed gives greater powers to the Ministry of Finance over war and cabinet budgets. This helps reign in unrestrained spending and rebuild the economy. Our high taxation is slowly rebuilding the economy, and based on estimates made by the Economist our net financial gain recently has been very good, especially in gold. However, the high taxation has spooked the market, and many businesses are now selling at a loss in an attempt to compete. This is partially because businesses had failed to build up a large liquidity prior to the tax change, and thus (ironically) our in-game markets have been caught in a credit crunch.
So what is the likely outcome? Well many shareholders will continue to pump funds into their businesses to keep them functioning. However, more experienced business people are already beginning to lay off employees to save costs until the markets become profitable again. The 20% tax makes withdrawing money from the company expensive, so many foreign investors who regularly withdraw GBP to change it to their own currency (via gold) will find themselves in an unfortunate position.
One solution could be described as the 'Romanian Option'. Because of the game mechanics, two of the four manufacturing industries (weapons and moving tickets) rely almost exclusively on war. A war would bolster our economy, and hopefully introduce an element of fun whilst doing so. However, this could always backfire, leaving us worse of financially and potentially losing face. A second option would be to encourage exportation of goods. Some countries make over five hundred gold a month from exports, something that most UK companies don't experience.
To go back to the original suggestion, one key reason for the eUK being poor is that we have a lack of regions. Services industries are necessarily small in eRep, due to a lack of in-game mechanics for banks, shops and so on. So the eUK economy is mostly Secondary industry. Much like in real life, the eUK is not ideally suited for this. We relied on cheap RM from the empire in the past, and that is what ideally we need to do here. How this is done is a different matter. We can either go hell bent on conquest and invade some innocent countries, or we can make trade deals with them. The first is far easier from a management point of view, but perhaps not from an ethical one. Whichever choice is made, whichever option decided upon, the decision must come soon.
Bagehot ~ Blacklist
As we know yesterday passed us by as the 25th of the month, or congressional elections day. Once a month candidates line up to take on the public vote and every time there is a surprise, a disappointment and a scandal. Most of you take the congress elections seriously and that is good, but we’re not a perfect collection of upstanding citizens. The last few months a candidate called Hurley has ran, won 5 gold and then resigned. Without Hurley running (the watchword for bad congress candidate after last terms shocking resignation one day after being elected), it is difficult to say who if any of the current congress members will be included as “blacklisted” candidates.
The Blacklist was created after the February congressional elections after the election of the now almost legendary Hurley in an attempt to create a publicly viewable list of congressmen you should not vote for. Although this is a very controversial idea, it is a solution to a flaw in the game that prevents Party Presidents de-selecting candidates. It is intended to make the public aware of the candidates who ask for their vote but have done not one thing to deserve that vote.
One of the most important aspects of the current system is that the list is unenforceable. There is no way to make it so that it could in any way prevent candidates from running. It is only a list of candidates that the current Prime Minister believes do not deserve your vote. Of course, at the moment, our Prime Minister does not place just anyone he wishes on the list, only those who have done very real wrong. That could change with our next leader, although it is unlikely.
Some discussion (both recently and long ago) explored the problems with the list. As of this moment the criteria qualifying candidates for the list are somewhat rigi
😛resigning in the first week of term (a nod to Hurley) and not being on the forums. This of course does not apply in reality because all you have to do it look at who is on the list.
Hurley- fine, fits the criteria - and EJPayne? As far as we know, and we do know, he fulfils neither of those criteria. He was active and he didn’t resign. But there were congressmen who did resign in the first week of term who are not on the list and there is a plentiful amount of inactive congressmen. Why aren’t they on the list? Well as we said above, this is unenforceable. Anyone is free to run and anyone is free to say that they disapprove of X and that you shouldn’t vote for them. As we see it there should be no criteria attached and we should simply base it on the opinion of the current PM. An opinion that will have some force with the public, as opposed to lesser known congressmen (such as myself).
We feel the list should never be created officially, to make the list enforceable: To legislate to create a list of “bad” congressmen. Enormous difficulties would arise, firstly it could not be simply opinion based, it would have to have an extensive set of criteria that would undoubtedly put the undeserving on it – there is no way to provide for every eventuality. Had we enforced the list based on the criteria as it currently stands, we’d have an ex-PM on the list. The debate on this in the forums was thorough and thankfully no one has attempted to bring any legislation on it and we don’t think anyone will.
The list is imperfect and does throw up some difficult points to contend with, but it is born out of an intention to right a serious wrong. And if it can dissuade even a single voter then it’s job is done.
Scipio the Great
Europe ~ Romania, triumphant
When Romania lost the West Siberian Region every Atlantis soldier in Western Europe sat back in shock. Nobody thought the juggernaut could ever be defeated, even by Indonesia. Since then, Romania has taken a deep breath and rebuilt. The Romanian arms industry was nationalised, all effort was put into war. Now, eventually, the hard work has paid off. Romania has emerged triumphant on the fields of Russia, and the swing of international influence has swung back towards Atlantis.
So what's next for Romania? Well their strategic goals are twofold from what we can tell. Firstly, to take high resource areas and to deny those areas to Indonesia, weakening their enemies economy. Secondly, to continue World War Three as long as possible, to help stimulate their markets. Heilongjiang and Liaoning regions both have high Iron, which would support the Romanian war effort. The former only has five citizens, and so would be an easy pushover. Expansion in the East would be relatively unopposed, and would avoid the choke point the Indonesians have orchestrated at Xingjiang.
The other issue surrounds Romania's Western front. The Hungarians have been accused of political takeover attempts several times in the past few days, and despite denials we must expect some sort of action from the burgeoning power. Their problem with Germany may escalate into a war, and if it does Romania must be prepared to stop them, once and for all.
United States ~ Uncle Sam's last hurrah
The name 'Uncle Sam' brings to mind (in eRep terms) many things. Brash humour, emotive articles and war. It was a relief to many Americans to see him go: the last reminder of a failed war in Mexico. His resignation speech was delivered mid-way through his impeachment, and as such it had a bitter twist to it. But how much of the war and subsequent defeat was Sam's fault? The war was fought entirely on Mexican soil, and in the early days helped stimulate the American economy. The Americans didn't suspect the Portuguese would invade and certainly didn't expect the sound defeat they received.
So what did America do wrong? Firstly, it failed to have an army. Like the UK army, the American army has little direct experience of war. Therefore they were not only physically impaired by low rank, but also logistically ill-prepared to fight an extended conflict. Weapons shortages, poorly trained rank soldiers and not enough high quality hospitals led to the US defeat at the hands of much smaller but more experienced Portugal. Thanks to the help of experienced leader Dishmcds (controversy aside) the Mexicans were able to channel their power to a point, and arguably would have stopped the US without aid from Peace.
This is not to say the USA is a weak nation, but its strength is in its defence. When fighting offensive wars it lacks the staying power and material resources to engineer the kind of rolling conquest practised by Romania. To rebuild their armed forces they need expert advice, from Atlantis generals, on army structure and preparation. They should have Defence Systems ready to drop into captured regions, armies of low level soldiers ready to mobilise to raise a wall. They should have stockpiles of weapons in government companies and moving tickets on demand. Most importantly, they need to shift their focus from a few enormously rich and powerful individuals to a more socialist state, where the power of the army is in its numbers, not in individual strength.
Business News ~ Co-operatives
On a personal note, I wish to add a little comment about a venture of mine. In association with TUP I set up the first co-op business (co-operative gifting company) some weeks ago. Since then we have expanded to include two other companies and are looking at expanding again. Co-operatives are intrinsically socialist, in that the purpose is to run the company for the workers, by the workers. Many of the employees are my close friends, and also shareholders. Although we put in different amounts, the company is jointly owned by us and is run by one of us who has more time than the others.
As a business model it is a strange one. Productivity is guaranteed by the fact that all lose if one does not work. Wages can be dropped if the business isn't doing well. In many cases employees work for just £1 and receive food by donation to keep costs down. This means that it can be incredibly competitive. In addition, the Unity Party constitution grants all co-operative groups the right to affiliate with the Party. This effectively means that any co-op that satisfies the Council of Unity's requirements for entry (co-operative values, equal shareholding by members etc.) can have input on Unity Party policy, help write national manifestos and even have the right to nominate candidates for positions. This helps bring democracy into the workplace, and I certainly find it very fulfilling.
**The Economist**
Top ten political parties by size
1. United States Workers Party|
|USA
2. Magyar Hazafiak Partja|
|Hungary
3. eUniunea Gamerilor Democrati|
|Romania
4. Indonesian Defensive Socialist|
|Indonesia
5. Partidul Liberal|
|Romania
6. Libertarian Party|
|USA
7. UK Reform Party|
|UK
8. Conservative Party|
|USA
9. Szolidaritas Part|
|Hungary
10. Canadian Social Democrats|
|Canada
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inb4 everyone else.
another great economist 🙂 i liked scipio's part especially
Fantastic as per.
Great once again.
The only thing I can think of that could have made this better would be a few paragraphs about how awesome, and handsome, I am
A must read for everyone great work
Nice one. Also, EJPayne was put on the list for leaking secrets
thanks very much soultrader🙂
>In association with TUP I set up the first co-op business (co-operative gifting company) some weeks ago.
The first, huh?
A great article - well written and packed with meat!
> A UKRP comeback by all accounts. But due to the high inactivity of many UKRP people in the part, we wonder exactly how many of these people will turn out to vote in forum?
Last term was not a good one for UKRP in Parliament - we suffered from the randomness introduced by the change in Congressional nominations that allows anyone to put themselves forward for election.
As a result of ths, we have attempted to focus on pre-selecting and briefing of candidates BEFORE the election. I am pleased to report that this term we appear to have a much better UKRP team elected to the House of Commons.
CertaCito
UKRP - East of England
(14 Terms of Office without a break!)
Oh, yeah, and a random person in Y&H
Nice,especially enjoyed scipios collumn.
yet another great article, what could I do without you?