Work Tax, WaM and You

Day 2,088, 13:34 • Published in Switzerland Canada • by Thedillpickl

Mood Music - If you like metal turn on the sub-woofer.


First A Little History

About 2 years ago admin 'fixed' the economy. Suddenly those of us smart enough to have built corporations were forced to fire workers because we could no longer afford to pay them a decent wage that they could live on. The market was flooded by product that was being overproduced at an alarming rate which drove prices through the floor. All our planning and designs were thwarted.

What happened? Two things changed the course of eRep forever. The cost of building a company was cut in half. While most considered 20 gold an insurmountable amout to acquire, 10 gold was doable for a start-up Q1 company. The other thing? WaM. Working as a manager in each company owned by an individual was now possible. Prior to the change an owner could only work in one company at a time.

Side note: I had a Q3 house and a stone company. I made a decent income from my employee's labor so I would work in the stone co. for a few days and when I had enough raw I would work a couple days in the house co. I made 2 extra houses for everyone I used. They did not sell well so I started giving them to good employees and other friends. Those were the days.

People said, "It will not be that bad." and "This will help people who don't have much.". What really happened was this started the slide down a slippery slope that has us where we are now. Every thing is fair and even. No one makes any real profit. There is no strategy to speak of. Those of us that understood the game mechanics of the econ had the rug pulled out from under our feet.




What Did The Entrepreneurs Do?

There was one last 'trick' to take advantage of the system. Build infrastructure, make RM companies that were not meant for workers, only to be WaM'ed by the owner. Others were buying RM from the market or paying employees to work in one or two RM companies and just breaking even (if they were lucky). People like me bought gold with real money, not to fight with but to buy infrastructure. We WaM'ed our own RM's and could make a profit. Just not enough profit to make it worthwhile buying the gold to build with.

But... Suddenly it became possible to make enough weapons and food to supply commune workers and have a bit left over. With the introduction of Military Units as we have now, a group of friends could supply their own weapons and food. While this did little to improve strategy at least it was something fun to do. Of course government MUs supplied the best because they were mostly funded by tax dollars.




TL😃R Start Here

Update for day 2088 has pooped in my swimming pool. If you didn't know yet, income tax is abolished. It is replaced with work tax. People who WaM pay from 1% up to 25% for the privilege to work for themselves.

On the plus side this will provide much needed income to the eRep governments in every country. They have been revenue starved since the admin finally turned off all the bots. With treasuries depleted something had to be done. I would suppose this is also why the current tournament is putting a lot of gold in those treasuries.

The negative side affects me and people like me. The people who bought a bunch of companies to WaM, are getting ripped. (I know there is not much sympathy for a gold buyer, so don't wear out the comment box laughing at me.) In my home of Switzerland we currently have no bonus regions (heck we don't always have any regions). Roughly my commune makes about 3 gold worth of stuff per day. This is mostly distributed as supplies to our MU. If Switzerland enacts a 25% work tax this will cost a little more than 2 gold. In that case I would be sending 2/3rds of our supply to the government. I supply 7 Q7 tanks per day worked. That would reduce supply to 2 Q7 tanks for my mates.




Here's What I'm Bitchin' About

A good part of that revenue taken from my MU's supply is going to go to the governments MU(s). They run their own communes but the work tax for anything they WaM is returned to them in government funding. So, any thinking person will go to the government sponsored MU to get hooked up with the better supply. Screw any of us who play eRep for fun and to hang out with friends.

YaY admin! You have figured out how to destroy WaM without hurting the little n00bs that you started WaM for. They can run to the all powerful government MU. Of course they can't afford to WaM their own little companies so much. This will help reduce overproduction (the original sin if you will) so finally you are trying to fix what was screwed up 2 years ago. Bravo. :claps: Too bad I wasted money buying all the gold it took to build a decent commune. Too bad I may be left with an empty MU. Congrats! It's been almost 2 years since I seriously considered quitting, now you've done it again.