Ambient on/off
Join eRepublik

William Shafer for Prime Minister

25 Day 679, 22:05 Australia
Hello again, Australia. Its time for Prime Minister elections again! Unlike last month, I come to you as a serious contender for the seat. Before I get to the actual issues, I would like to invite everyone to contact me personally to have a one on one talk about an issue you're unsure about.

Military
This is probably one of the first things anyone would think about when my name is spoken. I have a strong background of military service and leadership in eRepublik. In eAustralia, I started out as a Dropbear, and a strong voice against the democratic military system. Shortly after this system was taken down, I was promoted to Alpha Squad Commander of the Dropbears, and then shortly after Commander-General of the Dropbears.

Though it has improved, our military is still very inefficient. I believe the first step to fixing this is to give the military to the military leaders. Instead of the politicians making every single decision in the military, the Commander-Marshall and the three Commander-Generals will be the people directly in charge of the military. The Minister of Defence will act as the link between the military and the politicians, whereas the Generals and the Marshall will be just what they are: Military leaders. My ultimate goal is for eAustralia to have a military force that the rest of the eWorld will respect.

Western Australia
A pretty interesting debate that has gone on within eAustralia for some time. Rather recently it has popped its head up quite a bit. So far, there’ve been two resistance wars started by a group claiming to be the Indonesian communists.

Many articles have been published, including one by me, calling for eAustralians to rise up and take back Western Australia. While I still hold a desire to see all of eAustralian lands back under one flag, I admit that I have oversimplified this issue many times. I would like to find alternatives to the current deal we have with eIndonesia to see if we can’t find another way to get it back.

--But either way, we donât have the population or economy to support that many companies.
One major thing I’ve learned in eRepublik is that if a company is dead, it doesn’t really have any effect on anything whatsoever. The simple solution to this: Let the companies die if/when we buy them off.

--But I want to war the eIndonesians! They stole our land and itâs rightfully ours!
Yes, Western Australia is originally eAustralian land. Even the name does imply “australia”, but at the moment we lack the military strength to wage open war on eIndonesia. We can join Eden or Fortis, sure. We’ll immediately be in a constant state of war with eIndonesia. Or we can do the smart thing and wait. Rushing into things we are not prepared for will get us nowhere.

Economics
Mixed economies have always proven to work best. Economically, I follow the saying “everything in moderation”. Too much free market is bad. Too much government intervention is bad. The military needs access to cheap and quick weapons, therefore I believe the government should own weapon companies to quickly supply soldiers when a battle arises. We have this. The nation needs a competitive market to raise the GDP. We also have this.

--So what?
Increase exports. To become a major player on the globe, we must reach out economically by increasing the number of goods we export.

--William Shafer

 
Report comments
 
Alice_D
24
Alice_D Day 679, 22:15

you got my vote

 
Bass Holdings
Or
Bass Holdings Day 679, 22:15

ANPmaxxxxxxxxx

 
Binda33
40
Binda33 Day 679, 22:23

Nice presentation Will.

 
Gentyle
24
Gentyle Day 679, 22:30

Go Shafer!

 
patti11
25
patti11 Day 679, 22:34

"One major thing I’ve learned in eRepublik is that if a company is dead, it doesn’t really have any effect on anything whatsoever. The simple solution to this: Let the companies die if/when we buy them off."
Not all Gms will want to let their companies die, thats naive. They will most likely compete for wages in the aussie market. What effect will that have on the economy?

What would you like the exchange rate to be at?

Do you want to join EDEN or remain friends with Indonesia?

When Derek Apollyon was Prime Minister his time zone (same us yours) plagued him. With Australia's peak time from 0:00-6:00 erep time, thats in the wee hours of the morning for you. How will you combat this?

What experience do you have in other cabinet roles?

Thats all

 
Paul Hamon
34
Paul Hamon Day 679, 22:37

Shouldn't the leader of the Dropbears NOT be president of the country?

 
William Shafer
25
William Shafer Day 679, 23:09

@Paul Hamon: If I win, I'll obviously resign from my position in the dropbears.

@Patti11: If the government buys off the companies from Indonesia, the government has the companies - Not private business owners. The government can then regulate how many/how often these companies will come into the market. On the other side, if we get WA back by other means, the companies will still be owned by Indo. Either they buy to sell into our market (which we can slow via taxes if it hurts us too much) or let them die off.

As for my experiences, I was military leader in eUSA, Vice President in eUSA, MoD in eSingapore, Ambassador to eAustralia and eRussia (From eSingapore), and lastly I did some intelligence gathering in for the eUSA back before I first left.

As the eUS Military leader, I dealt with every Atlantis nation on a day-to-day basis (back when Atlantis was alive)

 
William Shafer
25
William Shafer Day 679, 23:11

Cont. @ Patti: Forgot about the time comment. I've been hanging around a lot later (my time) lately. I spend a lot of time awake during the night, and I'm often around to see whats going on during the Aussie daytime hours.

 
Xavier Griffith
31
Xavier Griffith Day 679, 23:14

William: "If the government buys off the companies from Indonesia, the government has the companies - Not private business owners. The government can then regulate how many/how often these companies will come into the market. On the other side, if we get WA back by other means, the companies will still be owned by Indo. Either they buy to sell into our market (which we can slow via taxes if it hurts us too much) or let them die off."

Well, you lost my vote right here.

"As for my experiences, I was military leader in eUSA, Vice President in eUSA, MoD in eSingapore, Ambassador to eAustralia and eRussia (From eSingapore), and lastly I did some intelligence gathering in for the eUSA back before I first left."

And your experience and understanding of eAustralian Politics?

 
Vincent Garibaldi
30
Vincent Garibaldi Day 680, 00:57

Good luck Shafer.

 
Etheodoria Vulpine
25
Etheodoria Vulpine Day 680, 01:15

MANBEARPIG.

 
Paul Hamon
34
Paul Hamon Day 680, 01:58

@William Shafer so you just got the job as Marshall of the Dropbears and within a 9 days you're ready to drop it from something better?

 
William Shafer
25
William Shafer Day 680, 02:30

@Paul Hamon: Not at all. I'm still doing my duties as Commander of the Dropbears. If I win, then I will resign it and take up the new job.

 
Paul Hamon
34
Paul Hamon Day 680, 03:52

14 days.

 
Binda33
40
Binda33 Day 680, 05:32

I'd like to know your official stance in regards to the proposed tax increases to help offset the theft of the gold from our government.

 
LanyIsLost
43
LanyIsLost Day 680, 09:46

Nice presentation and you have my vote.

 
Arbryn
36
Arbryn Day 680, 10:08

best of luck

 
Keegan Knoll
24
Keegan Knoll Day 680, 14:46

You have some good points, for certain.

 
William Shafer
25
William Shafer Day 680, 17:21

My official stance on the tax issues seems to have confused some people when explaining it earlier on the IRC.

I DO NOT normally support high taxes.
I DO NOT consider the taxes in this proposal to be "High".

However, I do not see the point in raising both the income tax, and then raising the VAT% on products. Doing this just gives the worker less money to buy products and makes products more expensive. Less products are sold, and less money is made. I would, however, support raising one or the other.

 
Arthur Cole
27
Arthur Cole Day 680, 17:37

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOO SHAFER!

Shafermaxxxxxxxxxx!

 
thirdperson23
20
thirdperson23 Day 680, 18:40

you got my vote, this country needs more atention paid to the military!

 
Oceanus
27
Oceanus Day 680, 19:44

Hey Australia! Know of Ajay Bruno? Help eSouth Africa get rid of him, vote this up!
<a href="http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/ajay-the-social-exile-964515/1/20" target="_blank">http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/ajay[..]/1/20</a>

 
Brandon0call
11
Brandon0call Day 681, 05:01

"Economically, I follow the saying everything in moderation"???
What about "Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess." Oscar Wilde.

 
Brewski81
15
Brewski81 Day 681, 06:13

You have my vote.

 
ScottocS
32
ScottocS Day 681, 22:34

^^
Why do people feel the need to quote Dead people? Speak in your own words you tool. >;p

Good luck Shafer.. I hope you do well