JdlF, Questions & Answers

Day 2,205, 14:24 • Published in Belgium Belgium • by JdlF

Hello everyone,

Nearly one day left before elections and first I'd like to thank all of you for the interest you're showing in them and more precisely in my candidacy.

As a "before the d-day" article I though it'd be a good idea to simply answer questions. So feel free to ask me whatever in the comments and I would answer both in comments and in this article.

I've received some questions beforehand so I'll start with them of course.

I must apology beforehand if answers might not be complete for each point. Some things still need maths and some others ... Well ... I just didn't think properly about.

I also must apology about some mistakes that could be in my answers as I've answered quite a lot and I have no time to fully examine everything.

Have a nice day, don't hesitate to question.

Best regards,

JdlF


List of questions:


From NLSP:
😉 "loan facilities would be openned for training contracts."
=> if you are level 25: you can take up a loan already ( up to 40 gold), so he is going to stop this, just in order that he can open a loan?

Loans for training contracts would cover higher: 53 golds. Moreover it would be more advertised. Basically we would come back to my last laws with some adaptations due to the fact the treasury is much lower than before. But yes, the meaning of opening training contract loans at 53 golds is to still incite people to strenghten. But not through BYS.

Eventually the main distinction might be the fact it would be more advertised. But I agree with you that with those drastic cuts made in the treasury we can't really allow too many loans as we once did. Nevertheless loans are better for state treasury than BYS programs because at the end of the day it would cost nothing.

From NLSP:
😉 "earn more with higer wages"
=> the government is going to fix the wages? How ?

At first I was thinking about increasing the minimum wage. But instead I believe that lowering the VAT as it's not of real use for eBelgium would allow citizens to work in a more capitalistic way. Hence the law of supply and emand should make those wages higher and improve the overall level of life for active citizens.

Note that I'm not really happy with such situation because it will lead eBelgium to a more capitalist era. But still, the treasury has been lowered to such extend that we need to prepare citizens to be more autonomous. Meaning more freedom about their companies and prices.

As it was stated many times, eBE treasury comes from individuals and plato's tournaments. Not from taxes.

Eventually I do know we can't change taxes without territories. So VAt could only be lowered if we get a congress back. But note that even without lowering the VAT, trends are to higher wages because suppliers and sellers are being more and more aware of the value of their goods.

From NLSP:
😉 "programs would remain as long as the state can afford. I would be elected, citizen pack would be a priority with education budget. BYS would be stopped"
=> how the programs remain while you stop them ?

As i've said some programs are a priority to me as they allow citizens to grow and become more independant. Which could be needed in the future if some others lower the treasury again. Of course we can only afford programs which can be supported by the remaining assets of eBelgium. I would chose citizen packs over bys.

By the way, not really related but thank you Stijn Puttemans for all the hard work you did. For those who don't know he handled citizen packs for over a year! And good luck to e Vladimir for continuing the job.

From NLSP:
😉 "more easily loans to training centers"
=> meaning what? if you are above level 25, simple procedure to get a loan for TC, if you aren't, the CP, MoF and your MU Commander should agree with it. How do you want to make this more easy?

First thing is I would change the level restriction. Second thing is I would allow more for loans. But of course the amount will be related to a recovery plan given by the citizen. Basically we would come back to my last laws with some adaptations due to the fact the treasury is much lower than before.

From NLSP:
😉 "A future where everyone can have fun. Where everyone can get help from the government."
=> Does it involve singing Kumbayah along the campfire?

If it means fun then yes. But basically I want citizens to be able to involve themselves more. Allowing them to debate and influence directly on their future. Eventually I want them to become more and more independant and able to sustain themselves even in case of treasury crash.

From NLSP:
😉 "citizens get money from them (Training Centers) on the long run."
=> really? I still have put more money in Training Centers than that I got out of it. How much longer do I need to wait?

Please, read my first article on eRepublik: Make money: upgrade your training grounds!. You got back in that time (I think it didn't change) 0.446 golds / day with weight room level 4 and climbing center level 4.
Whereas if you upgrade all your training centers level 4, you don't win gold or cc on the long term in a direct way but in an indirect way. Indeed it won't cost that much if you take the -90% training contract (6.53 per month which can be compensated by the worker medal). With that you will gain about +91.8/day which can save you few tanks when fighting and get you more easy battle heroe medals.

But yes, if your aim is only golds and cc, then it can be safer to restrain yourself to wr4/cc4. Note that strenghtening allows you to get really high results like pen zi one r.

From NLSP:
Also, during his last term he run away without previous notice for the last quarter. How much will he be absent this time? Half his term?

Thank you for pointing that out. I announced my team before leaving and once I left I contacted them every day. But I have to admit some hard things happened. While I was not there, my MoFA did quite a choice (but at the end of the day we were following cot orders) which resulted in eUK attacking us. I came back and repared what could be.*

Indeed this is the most delicate thing that happened. Nevertheless this war cost nearly nothing and we recovered easily and fastly.

As I've learnt I would not make the same mistakes. but obviously if I want to go on vacation I still would. Like last time, connecting every day (if possible). But don't worry I don't plan on going on vacation. Maybe a small 3 days week-end for new year.

*note that it was not my MoFA but vMoFA; I'm explaining it a bit lower in the article. And indeed MaryamQ, my vCP, was of much help.

From NLSP:
If his 'referendum' says that eBe needs to be freed or needs to stay wiped, would he be monitoring battles? How much effort would he personally do to ensure the desired outcome? What would this exactly be?

This is quite an easy one. My MoFA would have the job to ensure good relations with our powerfull neighbour (along with our long time allies). Including ePoland. What I woudl do to ensure an unwipe: allow a budget for it and ask ePoland to help us.
Don't get me wrong, in the situation we are; if ePoland doesn't want us free, we won't be. It serves nothing to lie we don't have our future in our hands... Still I would follow the referendum and harass ePoland government to the point that either they declare us as foe or let us retrieve regions.
Once that being done, war budget, focus on some heavy tanks to ensure the operations and that's it. As a reminder I already manager to come out from a wipe with ePoland. Even if it was a rw, it still was hard but I managed to. So if they don't block us, I should succeed once again.
If the referendum says no wipe, then we would fight against rws as it was done before. Sadly difficulty will go up the more time pass. Therefore, again, I would ask ePoland help (and other allies) to lower costs [as spending all the treasury against rws is not really what i want].

From Nohjis:
So, are you going to handle all government affairs in an ingame pm and stop using the currently existing tools for communication and cooperation between ministers (the forum section and the irc room) ?

We won't use forum sections as I did last time. And we will use irc room. But also google docs which are way more convenient than forum. As your last remark which was not a question "I've never seen a government where all ministers worked on their own", such thing happens. eBelgium is not really big therefore it is quite easy to handle alone some topics. Nevertheless I want everyone to be able to express themselves on every topic. Having one single mass-mp should enhance activity in the government and it is a critical point for success.

From Tony Clifford:
Who is your MoE?
Which will be your initiatives to make younglings to feel helpful to Belgium?
What about foreign affairs?

My MoE is Pavlosk96. He has some experience in it and I found he could make more than MoHA (MoHa project of gathering all top 5 PP still remains of course).

Your second question is quite interesting as I never took the problem this way. Indeed I always wondered how to make the best out of them and how to make them enjoy. But maybe you are the right here by asking how can we make them feel being helpful ... That's a tricky question I never though about. Sorry if I'm not compelte but it's really interesting so I'll look in this way deeper. Well firstly to make them feel helpful they first need to understand what is going on. That being said, this task is not perfect yet and things need to be improved. Then they need to have some responsabilities. Maybe through fighting as I believe it's the more easy at first. Lorcema told me we could check their activity and reward them. But it doesn't really answer your question as they might not findd themselves helpful. Another way would be favoring parties integration for them so that they can take part in politics.

Those are just some hints, I dno't have the answer to that but it's a interesting question and way of looking at the problem.

About foreign affairs; priority would be keeping good relations with ePoland mainly and eUK. We can stay neutral but... Not with them as we need them. Militarily speaking I don't believe we need to help them therefore we could foolow on helping our long time friends or open mpps with fighting countries close to us to cut down moving costs.

But at the end of the day eBelgium is a small country. Staying neutral? Why not. But we can't afford going against ePl and eUK. Going into an alliance would not mean much for us neither as we are too small to be taken in real consideration. I still believe eBelgium can play on the international part but through really strong fighters and more about diplomacy and politics as we are one of a kind.

From NLSP:
😉 "While I was not there, my MoFA did quite a choice (but at the end of the day we were following cot orders) which resulted in eUK attacking us. I came back and repared what could be. " Your MoFA was iirc Tony Clifford and he was AGAINST the airstrike that provoked the eUK to attack us. Furthermore, it was your vCP, MaryamQ that had to solve everything => that are 2 big fat lies

Indeed, memory, I'm not that young anymore. Kaad was former vMoFA and COT (alliance) representative. Tony Clifford was indeed my MoFa and was against this airstrike (note that to my defence TC was my second man with MaryamQ).
Then about the second point, MaryamQ did a wnoderfull job but she was not alone. She was back up by my government and myself. But that was quite normal as I was on vacation. I appointed her for this job and she did marvellous. Still aafter I came back I still had some things to fix to make sure we would recover our territories. Again MaryamQ did a good job, as part of the team and as my vCP.

To go further on this topic a government is a team. It's the CP's team. Obviously as CP you should take people who are able to take care of things. More importantly your vCP should be able to handle important things if you can't be there. And so she did. And I'm quite happy having chosen her as vCP. Still she was not alone even if her opinion might be else.

I've learnt about my mistake and that shall not happen again.