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Most communes are operated by MU's. So the production is used for operations. Being in the group is a prerequisite for working and sometimes a requirement.

The only real use I could see would be during a war when occupied. Communes could impact the amounts of tax money siphoned off.

And that's part of my question. I just didn't know how much communes are used anymore.

(long answer beaware)
Hello David ,

nice article this one! Even if I am no expert in economics I will try to help out as much as possible.

1) First of all we have to make clear that there is no obvious answer generally, but obvious answers personally. So for me the most important fact is what does the player need? Gameplay is the most crucial answer to this question. A bored player who doesn't fight (building his/her strength or simply 2click) wants to earn money so he can spend the same time in order to play or cover some of his/her needs.

A player who fights a lot and earns lots of medals would prefer to get paid in tanks because as you said the "buying power" he/she has is a better ratio and considering he/she would buy tanks anyway in order to fight, working in commune is the best option.

In conclusion for 1) is that the player actually decides the best option for him/herself . Also it is sure that this game couldn't work if we all were working in communes (only with auto-economy running from CPU)

2) Again there is no obvious answer. But this game is based on capitalism and companies make profit. So as if there is profit from companies the next clue we should look at is how many bonuses there are for the country and how many citizens. Even if CC is not a stable currency , don't forget that the game has mechanisms based on cc (RWs,Dictatorship,Airstikes,MPPs) so for sure a country in order to operate completely needs a huge amount of cc.

My opinion on that is an ideal country should be able to have a working market and efficient communes.Why? This way you achieve stability. The problem is that you need to know who needs to work in commune and who should work in job market. (for example a young citizen shouldn't work in commune, as earning cc will help him/her do some missions and learn more about the game and tank players shouldn't work there if they have many companies producing weapons )

So I'm thinkign that you say it's a mixed bag. Little bit of both is the best mix, which means you would not be for raising the Minimum Wage to accomplish more tax revenue.

Minimum wage applies well to countries with many citizens , as even from communes the nation makes money.For smaller nations it's good to have some adjustments in order to faction better.

function*

typo in last sentence.

What would you say for eIreland specifically?

c+s+v some gifts?

The LPA still runs it's communes and, to my knowledge, will continue to run them for the foreseeable future (I run one of them). If you accept that the true average wage is 57 IEP, with a best price of 15.00 for Q7s, you only need 4 a day to be better off as a player than earning a wage and most communes will give a lot more than 4. If you need cc, you can always sell your surplus weapons on the market.

I think that you would have to consider the real wage at around 65 IEP. I guess my follow up would be, how many weapons does 1 employee help you produce? What is the max that you could offer on a commune without losing money?

Commune holders run at a loss for the benefit of their workers. I had a spreadsheet set up for this a while ago, but I just accept the loss nowadays. Add to that it's very difficult to quantify anyway, as the costs of buying RM factories needs to be factored in.. My guess is that I could supply maybe 4-5 Q7s without taking a loss, maybe 6.

At the current Q7 rate, that would be a daily wage of about 90 IEP if you could do 6, which is better than any actual wage rate out there. The only downside for the worker would be a potential inability to sell the Q7's in the market. It also results in no tax revenue for eIreland.

Not quite. Commune holders based in Ireland pay work tax. Mine is a three figure sum daily and others will be much more.

How do you pay the tax though? What is the wage that you set for the employee? Do you pay it as a donation to eIreland, or is it taken automatically?

Commune holders usually set minimum wage for the country, which is, I think, 0.1 cc. Work tax is taken automatically when you work in a factory and, as I have a lot of raw material companies, that's a hefty sum.

Ok, so the tax that you pay is based off the RM work that you do yourself. So eIreland is missing out on the tax for your workers, but you're making up for that through your own work?

well i guess it depends on how much u get.the norm would be production - 2 guess u could get near 200 in weps from a commune but then again 200 is not that much these days. And it doesnt really do any good either for the mu owner other than a relatively cheap way to finance his mu. still your wrm would be near that in value. so actual value is very minimal

Depending on the weps though, it could be worth more than the 450 IEP you would make for the week (assuming 65 IEP/day).

One of the good things about a relatively low tax rate (such as eIreland ... I moved here for the 1% rate at the time) is that you can have normal employment outside of communes without being at a huge disadvantage. Since communes bypass taxes (a flaw in the game mechanics, imo) high tax rates work to force communes as the only workable alternative.
Because the compensation system for communes isn't directly supported by game mechanics (in regular employment the employ is paid automatically when they work, in a commune they rely on getting a 'gift' from the employer) it can work to the disadvantage of the employee who can find themselves not getting paid what they thought was due after working (it happened to me multiple times in an eUSA MU commune).
I think in the end, communes tend to be used to
- take advantage of less experienced players, potentially keeping them in perpetual poverty
- give advantage to large organized groups (as though they need any more advantages) over individual players, because it's easier for those large organized groups (particularly groups that exist external to the game) to work around the missing game mechanics.
For those reasons, I'm generally not in favor of communes, and prefer to live in a low tax nation, although I understand why sometimes communes are the only logical choice for some participants.

"- take advantage of less experienced players, potentially keeping them in perpetual poverty"

Really? An average daily wage of 60 against 8 (or more) Q7s at 15 = 120, so a player could gain 60cc per day, if he sold his excess.

I wasn't commenting specifically on any particular commune, and my experience with communes was in eUSA. If you run a commune where the payment, in weapons or whatever, is a straightforward exchange for a unit of work, with no other strings attached and you never miss making payments, then that is better than some in my experience.
Also, looking at numbers for salary or prices in eIreland only can be a little shaky, because the eIrish markets are smallish and therefore not always representative. There have been times not long ago when Q7 tanks could be had for 10, and salaries in some places can be a lot higher than 60. All of that said, again if you are running a commune that is honest and straightforward and doesn't tie compensation to anything other than work, then the individuals can make their own choices, and as long as taxes are low then it's a more fair competition than it would be otherwise.

I have only been part of 1 commune in the past, and it was here in eIreland (Bosshawk). He always paid as agreed, and it was solely based on working. They are pretty good around here.

my vote.

Communes aren't profitable anymore, there's so many good job offers in the bigger countries, it became useless to have a commune. The only profitable way to run companies is to work as manager.