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Zup Denmark. I've been away for some time, but IRL seems to have peaked. As autumn kicks in I'm pretty sure the time has come for a re-debut in eDenmark.

For those of you who do not know me; here's a short summary. I'm one of the oldest players around. Born eSwedish, I have renounced that identity for years now. I've done most things eRepublik has to offer. An author of sorts, semi-successful businessman, public servant. Take a look at my profile and you'll see where most of my gold has come from. My previous pacifism hasn't been kind to my general level however. Out of shape is a permanent state of mine. I'm also one of the few players who can boast with having earned more money by playing than I have spent.

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I don't like to brag, but I'm more or less the mind behind the Welfare-program that we've set up in Denmark.

The program was born from a general state of decay in Denmark. We've been experiencing that almost from the start, but things were looking dark enough already and as newly elected president I figured we had to do something about it.
Denmark has had it's fair share of ups and downs. As a small nation we've been attacked on mutliple fronts countless times. PTO's, actual invasions and in-group fighting has marred the country and its population. Somehow we've been able to keep the casualties to a minimum - and somehow we've turned our misfortune into monetary fortune. Much in part by our good friends, the German player base.

Denmark has enough cash to keep the wheels turning for a small but active population, and the Welfare-program was designed to do just that. With the job market failing, the avergage wage in Denmark was more or less on par with what was needed to survive. As a newcomer, this meant that the difficulty level faced when joining Denmark as a nation was staggering. Not only would your identity as a national constantly be questioned, due to PTO-paranoia: it would be hard to survive and play the game to the fullest with the meagre wages being paid.

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The system was simple: control of our country in more than one way.

Politically, we had more or less control of proceedings. Economically, the world was a mess - and on a general level we had no way of controling the unfolding events. We did however have a bit of cash to throw around, so action wasn't impossible. The question then turned to nationalism; what did it mean to be Danish? The in-group, consisting of myself and my closest advisors, came to the conclusion that we could put a ring around the active community which has been around for quite some time. We could not however keep the ring around just those people - then we might as well just divide the cash between the citizens and continue business as usual. The program had to be inclusive yet exclusive at the same time. We could not draw a single line; we had to make at least two.

The first line was based on language. A Dane is someone who speaks and/or writes Danish, we concluded. New, Danish, players would be automatically included in the program provided they could prove that there were in command of the Danish language. Seeing as the Nordic languages are quite exclusive in themselves, this proved to be a great way to create climbable barriers for players.

The second barrier then became acitivty. We would monitor progress of the program, and make sure that people who were active would recieve the help they needed - and the inactive remain un-rewarded. The program was based around national production of the highest Q-weapons. This was made for two reasons:

1. the Q-level was exclusive to two categories of people; the filthy rich or the old-timers. For a new player to compete in this level of the market, they'd had to get their credit card out. We would try to hurt the market as little as possible. Also, it's one of the most export-friendly commodities around. The employer's benefit would be an active work force, working for a set amount of money. The only variable remaining was the price of raw materials, which everyone else had to base their production around.

2. The Government is more or less always in need of high Q weaponry. If we're going to arm our populace, we're gonna give them the finest weaponry we can afford. The Welfare program ensured a steady production of said weapons.

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With these condidtions in place, we started off the program.
The initial success was indeed great. While the goverment had to spend some cash, we could also see an increase in activity and slowly competition on the market as a whole rose. As always, external influence would interfere which would force us into adapting the program - but I'd like to return to that aspect in a later article.

For now, my point is this: the Welfare program that is still operational today is a good thing for Denmark. It keeps money spinning around in the economy, which is what we need in order to improve the conditions in Denmark. If the game lacks dynamics, that is - it becomes very predictable - then we're going to slowly but surely die.

My end point is that we should be spending more money on Welfare. Actually, as much as we can spare in my opinion.

Yours, truly
/pho3nix