[Congress Proposal] Minister of Social Affairs
Day 1,876, 19:07
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Published in United Kingdom 
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by
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by John Maverick
Hello, my friends.
I was speaking to a friend of mine, Fritz179, and we realized we had a common dream in mind. We wanted a way to have fun by running a risk. Maybe a way to throw down a few GBP and maybe win a couple hundred GBP from the deal. That's right, A National Lottery.
As we were bouncing ideas back and forth to see how we would make it happen we realized there would be one problem. If you were to trust BillyBob to run the lottery and handed him the grand prize of 25 gold... Let's just say BillyBob would probably disappear and be heard from a few months later in the Bahamas. So instead we decided that a government official should run it; but who?
The Minister of Social Affairs
Who is the Minister of Social Affairs? Well, the position doesn't exist yet. This position wouldn't be created just for the lottery, of course, they would serve a variety of functions. So far, we came up with three: Forum Regulation, National Lottery CEO, and Press Reports. So let's get started!
Forum Regulation
As some of you know (hopefully most of you), there is an eRepublik forum that players are encouraged to chat on and make friends on. Sadly, it is being taken advantage of by some of the members. It would be the duty of the Minister of Social Affairs to regulate what is happening in the eUK forums to make sure that it is a safe place for all citizens to be in.
National Lottery CEO
Fritz179 was the brains behind the lottery, I only came up with the MoSA idea.
A National Lottery would be a great way to get our economy running. With each participant buying a ticket at a relatively low price (20GBP) the grand prize can be a large lump of cash. We even thought about doing 3 brackets! 20GBP, 150GBP, and 1 Gold. The more you spend on a ticket, the more you could win in the end!
There are two branches to participate in:
1. Straight Up Luck
Just like the name implies, this branch is all about luck. Buy a ticket, or 12, and test your luck to see if you are the winner. The winner will be decided by assigning each ticket a number. A random number generator will choose the 3 winners (one from each bracket).
2. Buckled Down Knowledge
Compete to find out how much you actually know. A question will be posted on the weekly article written by the MoSA (more on that later). The person with the best answer will be declared the winner. I know what you're thinking, just use a search engine! Except for one problem, if an answer is repeated, both entries are eliminated. A question could be "come up with an original tongue twister" or "what is a good joke?". The winning answer will be chosen by a small audience, maybe the other Ministers.
If the winning entry was disqualified in either case the money will be added to the pot for the next lottery. That means double the potential earnings! In order to benefit the most amount of people as possible, a small percent of the earnings will go to benefit different government programs. This will provide the government with a little more revenue which could hopefully mean reduced taxes for everyone.
Press Reports
How many different reports do you see every day from the government? Right now in the Top 5 I see 3 of them. Personally, I would like to see a weekly report coming that includes all of the information. The Minister of Social Affairs would be in charge of taking the weekly report from the other Ministers (to be delivered on Thursdays by 18:00) and join them all into one. This large one would come out the following Saturday or Sunday.
This means we would have a one-stop location for our information. No more having to dig around the interwebs to find useful stuff. This way, we can keep our top 5 to display a variety of information instead of only government reports (don't get me wrong, the reports written are very good and important, they just take up a lot of room).
That's what Fritz179 and I came up with, at least. I personally think it's pretty good. We leave this proposal in the hands of you, the eUK. As always, I thank you for reading this article. On behalf of Fritz179, have a good week my friends.
We would really appreciate it if you could shout it out to let the world know of these new possibilities!
Sincerely,
John Maverick
and
Fritz179
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Comments
I love the idea of a national lottery! We did something similar to this in eAustralia a few months back. It was extremely entertaining and beneficial to new players as well. : )
Best Idea I have ever heard
The problem will be one of trust... Although I'm sure there is no intention to fraud people, there will always be people suspicious if they fail to win and/or members of your own party is seen to win more often than not.
Maybe the official that handles the money for that month leaves his/her party to be seen as unbiased
BillyBob for MoSA
Can't do anything about the forums. So that part is irrelevant as the ownership can simply ignore you
This would be great. I'm not sure you actually can do much about the forums or if you really have to but the national lottery would be brilliant.
I don't understand why this should not be part of the purview of the MoHA? Not to say its not a good idea (it is) just that the type of thing proposed is something the MoHA should be handling.
@Mr Knee - very true, I imagine there might be some level of corruption there. A screenshot of the numbers from the generator could be required to make sure that it's not a fraud (or at least decrease the likelihood).
As for the competition side of the lottery, we could have the presidents from the top 7 parties vote. They will be given 3 options that have been selected by the people. 1 by the citizens, 1 by the Ministers in office, and 1 hand picked by our great president. I chose 3 and 7 to avoid the possibilities of ties.
@Bohemond4 - the MoHA already has a lot to handle. This is not only one appointed by BigAnt. Increasing their workload would not benefit them at all. Adding another cabinet position would also help get more people involved in the government. The more options, the more people participating. The more people participating, the more likely you are to be represented.
true, John, however, the stuff you mentioned above is part of what the MoHA should be doing already.
@Bohemond4 - I do not believe there is a lottery. I also was told by a few comments that there is no such thing as forum regulation. It is clear to be that we do not have a weekly report from the MoHA. Either you are suggesting that the MoHA is not doing their job, or your argument was not well informed. If it is the first of the two, that is even more reason to add another position to the cabinet to ease their work load.
Notice I said 'should'
There are three Ministers for Home Affairs this month and something like 2 deputies. I think the MoHA should be able to take on these new roles. Also, the forum regulation is handled by the moderation team, and this is unlikely to change.
I think the MoHA should actually be doing more than writing guides, which is most of what it does atm.
@Bohemond4 - I really don't care who's doing the jobs, I just want them to get done. That's all I'm trying to say.