A Response to Musings on Planned Economies
Day 412, 22:57
•
Published in South Korea 
•
by
•
by Peregrine
This article is a comment gone awry in response to Lowell Kennedy's recent series of articles at his newspaper The Musicman. Linked here.
IRL we have many needs. We need food, yes, but by buying your dinner in a grocery store or in a restaurant you are supporting not only the farmers/ranchers, but the markets, distributors, retailer, and vendors that come between you and the plant or animal. All of these people in turn need to be fed, clothed, housed, warmed/cooled. They enjoy reading or watching TV. They use a computer, sleep in a bed, need couches, and pest control, and doctors... occasionally a lawyer, dentist.. their kids need teachers and professors... their schools and offices need non professional staff... The wants and needs of people IRL are so complex as to defy any single model. In many industries, most particularly the education industry, you can readily identify both social and private models in the same space.
In eRepublik, you have wants and needs too... However your NEEDS are effectively met when you can work and train and afford to eat and be gifted or housed without losing wellness. That is the meeting of needs.
The meeting of wants is different, but not exceptionally so. Its IMPOSSIBLE for everyone in erep to own a company that they can make money at. I personally own or manage more than 10... and of all my employees how many of them can realistically expect to own a competitive company - especially one meant to compete with me.
When you reorganize your thinking however, the benefit of command economics on the domestic level become apparent. In South Korea we produce enough Food in our state run industries to feed our population and provide surplus. All that simply through owning a few grain companies and a couple food companies. By making the Food Q3, all workers then have to do is factor a gift into their daily expenses and voila - their needs are met.
The surplus then exists at the national level. Everything over the cost of raw materials in ALL industries from that point on is national surplus. Some of it could be recycled into the economy (such as houses being sold to citizens to remove the need for daily gifting) - but most of it can be exported abroad to foreign markets that DON'T follow our system.
Provided the domestic industry, then, has a low market price equal or greater to 1.5x the raw materials cost of that same product (example: Q1 House has an RM cost of about 80 USD, and retails on the market between 200-300 USD. The cost of importing the RM from the USA to SK (for example) then, is 80 USD. Not only that, but because our FOOD industry has effectively covered the NEEDS of our housing workers (and they are compensated at scale to be able to afford their wellness needs with a little extra to save) the relative cost of production for South Korea of a Q1 House is... 80 USD.
That means that we can then sell our Houses back to America using standard import licenses for 81 USD (which would become 202 USD after 99% import and *50%* VAT)... and we'd be undercutting the lowest market price in the eUSA by 34 USD - if you count the closeout low market price which can't possibly be selling for profit - or 117 USD below the true low market price.
Of course, with houses or high q weapons, you wouldn't need to sell them with market licenses at all. Just move a newspaper there and advertise them. Cut out the tax authorities and there you go... more profit. Because everything over 81 USD selling price IS profit.
This is exactly what we're doing in South Korea. I apologize for using the USA as an example, but as this is a response to an article posted there first, I felt the need.
The point is that planned economies don't just work in eRepublik - they are (from my observation) the ONLY macroeconomic model that CAN work for a whole population. By exporting our surpluses, a country of only a few dozen citizens can quite easily produce enough surplus to raise the funds necessary to put our citizens in the drivers seats of RM companies in capitalist (read, failed) economies around the world. They will have a guaranteed market (South Korea) to sell to when they cannot clear their whole stock at their cost domestically - and we in turn can translate whatever they sell us directly into profit by transforming it into finished goods at prices that are UNBEATABLE in the markets from whence the RMs originated... and RM prices are so uniform relatively speaking between the large developed nations, that it would likely be salable at a profit ANYWHERE.
As the Party of South Korea has been elected to stand at the head of both the legislative and executive branches of government, this is EXACTLY what we plan to do. The benefit is very real to any citizen of south korea - or any citizen of the world interested primarily in running a successful business. If you're new to eRep and thats your dream, shoot me a PM. South Korea is waiting for you.
IRL we have many needs. We need food, yes, but by buying your dinner in a grocery store or in a restaurant you are supporting not only the farmers/ranchers, but the markets, distributors, retailer, and vendors that come between you and the plant or animal. All of these people in turn need to be fed, clothed, housed, warmed/cooled. They enjoy reading or watching TV. They use a computer, sleep in a bed, need couches, and pest control, and doctors... occasionally a lawyer, dentist.. their kids need teachers and professors... their schools and offices need non professional staff... The wants and needs of people IRL are so complex as to defy any single model. In many industries, most particularly the education industry, you can readily identify both social and private models in the same space.
In eRepublik, you have wants and needs too... However your NEEDS are effectively met when you can work and train and afford to eat and be gifted or housed without losing wellness. That is the meeting of needs.
The meeting of wants is different, but not exceptionally so. Its IMPOSSIBLE for everyone in erep to own a company that they can make money at. I personally own or manage more than 10... and of all my employees how many of them can realistically expect to own a competitive company - especially one meant to compete with me.
When you reorganize your thinking however, the benefit of command economics on the domestic level become apparent. In South Korea we produce enough Food in our state run industries to feed our population and provide surplus. All that simply through owning a few grain companies and a couple food companies. By making the Food Q3, all workers then have to do is factor a gift into their daily expenses and voila - their needs are met.
The surplus then exists at the national level. Everything over the cost of raw materials in ALL industries from that point on is national surplus. Some of it could be recycled into the economy (such as houses being sold to citizens to remove the need for daily gifting) - but most of it can be exported abroad to foreign markets that DON'T follow our system.
Provided the domestic industry, then, has a low market price equal or greater to 1.5x the raw materials cost of that same product (example: Q1 House has an RM cost of about 80 USD, and retails on the market between 200-300 USD. The cost of importing the RM from the USA to SK (for example) then, is 80 USD. Not only that, but because our FOOD industry has effectively covered the NEEDS of our housing workers (and they are compensated at scale to be able to afford their wellness needs with a little extra to save) the relative cost of production for South Korea of a Q1 House is... 80 USD.
That means that we can then sell our Houses back to America using standard import licenses for 81 USD (which would become 202 USD after 99% import and *50%* VAT)... and we'd be undercutting the lowest market price in the eUSA by 34 USD - if you count the closeout low market price which can't possibly be selling for profit - or 117 USD below the true low market price.
Of course, with houses or high q weapons, you wouldn't need to sell them with market licenses at all. Just move a newspaper there and advertise them. Cut out the tax authorities and there you go... more profit. Because everything over 81 USD selling price IS profit.
This is exactly what we're doing in South Korea. I apologize for using the USA as an example, but as this is a response to an article posted there first, I felt the need.
The point is that planned economies don't just work in eRepublik - they are (from my observation) the ONLY macroeconomic model that CAN work for a whole population. By exporting our surpluses, a country of only a few dozen citizens can quite easily produce enough surplus to raise the funds necessary to put our citizens in the drivers seats of RM companies in capitalist (read, failed) economies around the world. They will have a guaranteed market (South Korea) to sell to when they cannot clear their whole stock at their cost domestically - and we in turn can translate whatever they sell us directly into profit by transforming it into finished goods at prices that are UNBEATABLE in the markets from whence the RMs originated... and RM prices are so uniform relatively speaking between the large developed nations, that it would likely be salable at a profit ANYWHERE.
As the Party of South Korea has been elected to stand at the head of both the legislative and executive branches of government, this is EXACTLY what we plan to do. The benefit is very real to any citizen of south korea - or any citizen of the world interested primarily in running a successful business. If you're new to eRep and thats your dream, shoot me a PM. South Korea is waiting for you.
Facebook
Twitter
Discord
Comments
But I WANT to get wealthy.
Then I suggest you take a closer reading of the article. XP Besides, you're an American capitalist running dog.
Wealth and a planned economy aren't mutually exclusive.
-Almost forgot. Congrats Father on winning the presidency.
Father, this is the statistical support that I've failed to include in my article. Furthermore, it displays a contemporary example of the planned economy. Not only did it work in Beta with Dio but now in V1 with you.
Good luck to you and to SK.