Join the new world

Many of you do not know me but I am back! After my failed run for presidency directly before V1 was released I took a hiatus.
Firstly: I’m a lazy writer and do not plan to grind out numerous articles on a regular basis. This newspaper will be largely informal and observational.
Today I am presenting two impromptu interviews with our two presidential candidates. I encourage Americans to comment if they have any questions for our candidates. I’m not officially endorsing either one of them. Both UncleSam and Justinious are old friends of mine. I thank both of them for giving me a valuable moment of their time.

First article will be my interview with Uncle Sam:

[19:24] Daphne_Lilac: Hey!

[19:25] UncleSam: Hello there Daphne

[19:25] Daphne_Lilac: Thank you for this interview UncleSam I appreciate your time.

[19:25] UncleSam: Anytime old friend

[19:25] Daphne_Lilac: Tell us how many times have you run for the presidency?

[19:26] UncleSam: Depends on what you mean, I've technically been in the election three times
[19:26] UncleSam: only ran for two
[19:27] UncleSam: but ran for another one, and didn't even get into the election because Evan Bayh was a dick about it.

[19:27] Daphne_Lilac: Fair enough, I would just like to establish a bit of background for all of our newer citizens.
[19:28] Daphne_Lilac: So UncleSam one of the biggest issues that I see for you is that you've chosen William Shafer as your running mate for VP. I say this because it’s mostly what I'm reading around Erepublik media and I'd like to hear your opinion about that.

[19:30] UncleSam: Well obviously choosing Will Shafer as my vice-president has caused quite a couple problems, at the same time he does a lot for me as VP. There are three big areas that a President has to cover while in office, those are foreign affairs, the military and the country economy.
[19:31] UncleSam: My economics article shows I know what I’m doing there. My foreign affairs, which I have yet to release is well established, especially with my overseas work with Italy.
[19:33] UncleSam: Will takes away stress from the third area of a Presidents duty which is running a lot of the military. His military experience is much greater than anyone else in this country. He has firsthand experience of where our military lacks and has had a month to mull it over to formulate the optimal solution.
[19:34] UncleSam: Using his knowledge of the military, he'll handle most of those affairs, which is one less job for me to worry about when I have to balance an economy and relations with other countries.

[19:35] Daphne_Lilac: Speaking of military, one of the criticisms I've seen leveled at the current administration is that the military is unorganized. Exactly what is your administration going to do about this?

[19:36] UncleSam: Well, in the past month there have been attempts to reorganize the military, something that I find to be unnecessary. To really organize the military, we plan on using the really active leaders to coordinate operations and remove fluff from the chain of command.
[19:37] UncleSam: Furthermore, we plan on bringing in a self supply system into the military, where they run privatized weapons and iron companies, funded by the government.
[19:38] UncleSam: This will allow them to have an extra stock of supplies for a military conflict, whether it be war games or a real war against an enemy country.
[19:38] UncleSam: The point is to make the system more effective and not rely on an open market for weapons all the time.

[19:40] Daphne_Lilac: I noticed your answer to Chisholm's interview regarding the recent theft of the entire Federal Reserve. In my opinion it left much to be desired for a presidential candidate. Do you think that what Franco(aka Teacher) did was a light matter for our country?

[19:41] UncleSam: Oh of course not. The matter and its effects on the economy are devastating and should be treated as such. What I said in my previous interview was that, hey it's done and it's only time to move forward from it and start working towards a better future.
[19:42] UncleSam: In my mind I like to think of Franco as the Joker, introducing a little chaos into the system, but I remain a schemer.

[19:44] Daphne_Lilac: I'm sorry? You remain a schemer?

[19:44] UncleSam: lol
[19:45] UncleSam: it's a quote from the Batman movie
[19:45] UncleSam: meaning that I’m still treating everything seriously with a plan ready for each situation

[19:48] Daphne_Lilac: We sometimes get a glimpse of a minority voice in our country- pacifists specifically- who advocate to abolish war in game. Thoughts?
[19:48] Daphne_Lilac: (or at least to not participate in war)

[19:49] UncleSam: Well I personally believe it's a rational thought, and their entitled to their opinions.
[19:51] UncleSam: It's not necessarily my opinion, because it's a game and no one actually dies, so there isn't a humanitarian side to it. Personally though, I like to use war as an economics equalizer, but all that is described in my article on the military in the war games section.

[19:52] Daphne_Lilac: Right now we have the largest population inErepublik. This could be a boon to our country but it is obvious that we face challenges regarding that. How do you propose we engage our newer players and increase activity?

[19:53] UncleSam: Well this is something I planned on including in my "extra qualifications" article, but I'll give you a sneak peak
[19:54] UncleSam: Obviously our large population has a lot of potential, the first way to get citizens involved is to make sure that they have somewhere to go. To do this, we rely on the newbie citizen message (a message sent to new citizens when they join the game)
[19:55] UncleSam: So with this I plan on making a few changes, giving them more places to look to for a wealth of information. Once there we have to make sure we keep em hooked, give them something fun to do ya know?
[19:56] UncleSam: well this is where the media and the IRC come into play, make sure they take part in the community. I very much enjoy the community in the USA, we're a lively bunch and can be very entertaining so once they acclimate to the community, they’ll have a bunch of helping hands, thus increasing the amount of active citizens

[19:56] Daphne_Lilac: A lot of people are understandably upset about the recent tax increases and find it excessive- do you plan on changing this?

[19:58] UncleSam: Of course. Here's my plan for the tax change, we leave it up for as small a time as possible until we've recovered a lot of currency and gold back into the treasury. I'm hoping for this to take about 5 days or so. Once that happens we bring the taxes back down to their old values, because it was a taxing system that worked.

[20:00] Daphne_Lilac: Most of the media I've been reading lately is focused on the fun quotient of the game and the seriousness. Some people think it’s too serious. What do you think?

[20:02] UncleSam: Well, the USA in particular has gotten way too serious, but that is because we have a population full of newer people who expect us to do a lot for them with too many differing opinions, while at the same time they think they have all the answers. A part of this problem is that we need their votes during election time, so we have to be serious, and the older players have now set that tone.
[20:03] UncleSam: It's up to us to reverse it if we want more fun in the game. I as the Father of Fungasms hope to bring back some of the fun, hopefully by recreating the awesomeness brought into office by out late president Nave.

[20:09] Daphne_Lilac: So LennyA wrote an article regarding a newb person who PM’ed a large number of people begging for money. It was revealed that 'she' has done this in a few different countries simultaneously. What do you think of this practice?

[20:10] UncleSam: Well it's interesting, I must say that the person who pulled this off must have been around Erepublik before this in order to gain about 400 friends in one day
[20:11] UncleSam: It's within the game rules, however cheap it is. Its innovative, but it's defiantly not a way to get accepted in to the community in the first day

[20:12] Daphne_Lilac: So far our government has held an extremely low amount of women involved. In fact to date I believe only I and PrincessMedyPi have been involved in higher government. What plans do you have to increase the wimmin ratio in our government?

[20:13] UncleSam: Well, I'd like to see more active women that take initiative. If they ask me about it and show that they're up to the job, I'd love to include them. A woman’s voice is obviously something that we lack sometimes in government and it can add different viewpoints that can easily be beneficial for the country.
[20:14] UncleSam: So, bring me women who want to get involved and I'll hook them up.

[20:15] Daphne_Lilac: Thank you!
[20:15] Daphne_Lilac: This was an impromptu interview
[20:15] Daphne_Lilac: So I basically asked questions off the cuff
[20:16] Daphne_Lilac: Thanks for your patience 🙂

[20:17] UncleSam: Anytime