Join the new world

In Part 1 of the Captains of Industry series, I presented the theory that slow and steady wins the race, especially when steady savings allows one to build towards investing in rapidly increasing improvements in citizen skill and wealth. This approach was also meant to apply to the eCan population at large – ie. the Mrrshan military approach of fighting hard early, blowing loads of cash, with hope of winning the short-term game, or the Sakkra industrial method of starting slow, investing in infrastructure, with the long-term aim of exponential growth once these investments pay off.


“The institution of a leisure class has an effect not only upon social structure but also upon the individual character of the members of society. So soon as a given proclivity or a given point of view has won acceptance as an authoritative standard or norm of life it will react upon the character of the members of the society which has accepted it as a norm."
--Thorstein Veblen: Theory of the Leisure Class (1899)
Chapter 9:The Conservation of Archaic Traits

So what does that have to do with eRep and eCanada? MDP vs. MOO? Government funding vs the slave pits? Greek babyboomers vs eCanadian centenarians? The old supply-and-demand mechanic vs working-manager communes?

The way I see it, we’re currently at Stage I: B ) #1 on the cusp of an emerging supply-chain restructure: “B ) New forms of manufacturing develop. 1) Productivity is initially increased by enhancing the division of labor: different workers are given the task of making different parts of some product.” By reorganizing the way we spend money on supplies for armies, we can divide the work among the members of a military organization, thereby retaining the initial investment and building a self-sustaining supply system that needs less funding.

Before we get to that point (to be better elaborated in Part 3 and 4), let’s consider how the average citizen can adopt this new means of production for their personal benefit and, might I be so bold to claim, the benefit of the nation. By building a strong base of citizenry, we build towards a higher military potential for eCanada in the long-term game.

As it stands, eCanada functions on a Capitalist system. The worker offers up his work skill and health to an employer who pays him a wage that is lesser than the profit made selling the finished product. There’s nothing wrong with this, since those who invest the time into managing employees and watching market prices should receive the reward of their labours. However, it becomes increasingly difficult for more players to reach the heights of eRep business tycoon: there are not enough employees to fill every company; there are not enough players to buy hordes of product being put on the market.


“As the vicarious leisure class comes into being, so do distinctions among servant classes. Those taking part in vicarious leisure begin to engage in the vicarious consumption of goods. This refers to the costumes they wear and the size of their servant's quarters. This is the stage where there is a differentiation in consumption. Consumption yields utility to the individual and it is a by-product of wealth. In the early predatory culture, it was the work of women to produce the goods that the men consumed.”
--Veblen Theory of the Leisure Class ~~ Chapter 4: “Conspicuous Consumption”





As such, we rely on the working class of eCanadians who pay their taxes to fund the increasing skills of those who generally a) own profitable companies, b) have membership in the CAF or TCO, c) occupy positions in the government. In this manner, we have developed a version of Thorstein Veblen’s ‘Leisure Class’:

“According to Veblen, beginning with primitive tribes, people began to adopt a division of labor along certain lines. The "higher status" group monopolized war and hunting, while farming and cooking were considered inferior work.

He argued this was due to barbarism and conquest of some tribes over others. Once conquerors took control, they relegated the more menial and labor-intensive jobs to the subjugated people, while retaining the more warlike and violent work for themselves. It did not matter that these "menial" jobs did more to support society (in Veblen's view) than the "higher" ones. Even within tribes that were initially free of conquerors or violence, Veblen argued that certain individuals, upon watching this labor division take place in other groups, began to emulate the behavior in higher-status groups.”

The nature of warfare in eRepublik makes it necessary for us to rely on the use of Leisure Class Tanks to win major battles, while the menial class produces the goods, gold, and guns to necessitate this warfare among the elite soldiers. This does not entail that the CAF and TCO are a burden upon eCanada, since they do organize citizens and put to use the excess CAD collected through taxes that are not needed to fund MPPs. Let’s just say citizens in military groups are our most active players and deserve extra funding for fights and skill gain. Perhaps it only makes sense that income taxes and VAT taxes are a way to recoup the loss of investment into the skill levels of less active players who will inevitably quit the game anyhow. Nevertheless, it is worth considering how one might harness the value of one’s menial labour and invest it towards one's own skill development.

A less politically active base with a high turnover rate facilitates the feudal-capitalist nature of eCanada:

“The capitalist has socioeconomic advantages that are insurmountable for the under classes to compete against or to rise up to; thus, a continuation of the medieval political system known as the feudalism is carried through in the new form as the modern socioeconomic feudal system, and to continue to protect the old wealth and power of the new type of all powerful lords in the capitalist form.”



With your feet in the air and your head on the ground,
Try this trick and spin it, ya mmm

Tax noobs before they die. Employ them as zombies. Take a block from the bottom and put it on top.

…until someone knocks it over…

Historico-social theory babble over: How can I build a better citizen in the era of the working-manager? Great news: You can take the first steps to becoming a Captain of Industry just by saving towards your first raw materials company.

Learn how in Part 2b of Captains of Industry.