Join the new world

The fifth article in my ongoing series to educate new players to the world of eRepublik. Parts I through IV can be found below:
Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV

How do I start a business?
First you need to decide if you want to start the business with your citizen or an organization. If you want your citizen to control the business, then you need to be at least experience level 9. For an organization, you must be experience level 11 to start an organization and have five gold. To start a business, you must have at least twenty gold in your citizen/org account and go to the "my places" tab in the menu, select "company" and then select "create new". You then start filling in the fields indicated such as company name and logo and presto! You now own a company.

What are export licenses?
Export licenses are exactly what they are named for - once purchased for a one-time fee of 20 gold, you can then begin exporting your company's product to whichever country you purchased the license for. You do not need to purchase a license for the country you start your business in.

What's the importance of high resource regions?
These regions are basically the only plausible way you can have a profit from a raw materials (RM) company. A high iron region will increase your iron production, a high grain region will increase your grain production, etc. RM companies not in high resource regions face severe production penalties and will find it difficult or impossible to compete with other RM companies in high resource regions on the market.

What is VAT?
VAT stands for "Value Added Tax" - a.k.a. sales taxes. No VAT can be imposed on raw materials, however it can be imposed on anything else in the game. The percent value of VAT will be added onto your purchase and increase the consumer price for the product in question.

What determines my productivity?
There are several factors which determine your productivity at work:
-Your wellness (health)
-Your skill level
-The number of employees at your job
-In raw materials companies; the resource value of the region

What determines my battle damage?
There are several factors which determine the damage you do in battle:
-Your wellness (health)
-Your strength level
-The quality of the weapon you have (-50% damage if none)
-Your military rank (private, corporal, etc.)

What is a "wall"?
A "wall" is a term used by military officials to describe the damage a particular region can take before falling to the enemy. A region's wall strength is higher based on population and defense system quality and is raised by defenders fighting against attackers. If the wall has not reached zero by the end of the battle, the defenders win. If the wall reaches zero by the end of the battle and the defenders cannot restore the wall to previous strength levels, the attackers win.

What positions are available in government?
Aside from the presidency and the members of congress, there's the president's cabinet and ambassadorships to any and all eRepublik nations. There are also several opportunities available for advancement in the eUSA military.

What are forfeit points?
Forfeit points are used by the admins to gauge a player's level of douchbaggery. Basically, the more forfeit points you have, the more of a douchebag (rea😛 cheater/troll/hacker/scammer) you are because you've been breaking the rules. If you have no forfeit points, keep doing what you've been doing.

Why are "lulz proposals" proposed?
The public always gets in an uproar when "lulz' proposals are proposed because they treat them as serious proposals. However, around the time party presidents have to pick their next congressional candidates (the 16th of each month), there is very little official business left to do in congress. So in order to maximize the experience gained in congress (members of congress get experience points by introducing and voting on legislation), many unused proposals are used up so that senators can grab that extra bit of experience before their term ends.

Well, I hope that was informative and I hope you subscribe for more helpful articles from the eMerica Gazette.