[Dept of Ed] The Business, with jkeller4000

Day 3,765, 02:27 Published in USA USA by Department of Citizen Affairs


Hello eAmerica! Today we were lucky enough to catch a few minutes of jkeller4000’s time. You know, that guy who makes enough Q1 houses to put a roof over all of us twice over. The subject? His business empire, and economic play in general.



While sometimes derided by people who don’t know better, those economic players underpin the success of eAmerica. Without them we can’t generate enough tax revenue to fund any of the fantastic programs like AARP that you have all come to love and enjoy.



What companies do you own?
I own many Q5 food and Q5 weapon raw material factories. I also have two Q6 food factories one Q7 weapon factory. Enough Q1 house factories to produce 106 houses a day if I have the employees, and enough house raw material factories to produce all the house raws I need.


How did you get the gold?
I bought a bunch of gold with my credit card to get the factories.

Where are your holdings?
The holdings are in Egypt, Turkey, Indonesia, Chile, Serbia, Spain, Argentina, Florida (USA).

Do you Work As Manager (WAM)? Hire employees?
I WAM and hire employees, though I only WAM if I have all the employees I need to work all the factories, as un-ticking the worker in a factory and re-ticking is too much work to do regularly.


How do you set your selling prices?
I currently sell my houses for 10cc less than the current market price. If I sell other things I try to set the price a bit below the market price to get them to sell fast.


How do you set your wages?
I try to hire workers for the price I sell houses for, divided by ~4.5. Sometimes I do 4.7.

How do you acquire Raw Materials (RM)?
I produce all the raws I need. I found buying raws every once in a while to be too big of a hassle as storage space is very limited, so producing them as I need them reduces a bunch of headaches.


Are all your WAM factories in the same place? Or do you jump around to different regions to maximise your profits
All my wams are in the same holding company in Florida, which is my residence.


What is the easiest, cheapest and smartest way for a young player to get solid and growing daily income?
Easiest: Check the job market daily, having a Q1 house activated and working over time each day. Then save, and buy only Q5 weapons or food raws and WaM in them. This way no matter the tax policy the new player profits.

Cheapest: Find a military unit willing to supply all the food and weapons you need to fight. This way no income is needed and you can enjoy the military aspect of the game. There are some communes that also supply gold for Training Ground upgrades (or maybe those have stopped now?). This is risky though, because I have yet to find a commune that pays more in supplies than working the max job offer on the market.

Smart: Go to school IRL, become an Electrical Engineer as they are only a 4 year degree and pay about $75k+ a year. Then spend $20k on in-game gold and buy a bunch of factories and raws that meet a persons needs.
Editor’s note: We thought it was clear jkeller was giving tongue-in-cheek advice here, but from the comments it appears that’s not the case! Please, don’t spend $20k USD on a game. Going to University to get an Electrical Engineering degree is good advice though.


Thanks for your time jkeller4000! We hope you’re not submitting an invoice for time required to prepare those responses, some of them seem like they took awhile to come up with!



What can we learn from jkeller?

- Keeping a diverse portfolio of Holding Companies means you have exposure to multiple labour markets, and can keep your employee’s work tickets coming in despite local events.

- Keep your spare cash after meeting living costs (food, weapons) and don’t blow it all on something foolish. That cash is your investment in a future income stream, like a 401k plan.

- Always have a Q1 house switched on. This means you can work twice a day. If you’re on a 350 CC salary, that earns you an extra 7*350 = 2450 CC a week. Easily enough to pay for the next week’s house.

- Keep your WaM companies (raw materials, lower quality food) in a holding that matches your residence. This will save you money zipping around the countryside for only a marginal increase in production. It will also save your mouse getting worn out quickly from clicking so much!

We’re targeting a fresh and pleasant feel for these articles and would love to get feedback from the eUS citizens on how we're doing. Don’t forget, we’re looking for new banners and line breaks. If you’ve got graphics skills and can do better than the tired old pictures you can see here, send them over to to Ilene Dover for a shot at a 20k CC prize. There is one entry so far - you don’t want a prize to go uncontested do you?

With love,
your DoE Staff,

Ilene Dover - Secretary of Education
T Recks - Deputy
Phinigan - Deputy