IUP Member Companies: Fine Wine Or Poison?
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by Ian E Coleman
Est. 2010
Fifth Edition: Monday, October 11, 2010
Last week has been a transition period for the eWorld, and especially for eIreland. Here we have a new cabinet and president settling in and attempting to steer ship away from the whirlpools and storms created by our meddling administrators. While some find this all frustrating, and others see beauty in the potential tragedy and drama of it all, there can be no denying that there has been a lot to take interest in these passing days and weeks.This time we discuss the recent announcement (an article posted October 9, 2010) that one of eIreland’s parties will now have “party companies”.
The party in question is IUP (Irish Union Party) which has 52 members (as of October 10) and 21.88% eIreland’s congress. IUP Holdings, which is an organization representing the party of the same label, is the owner of several “party companies” which promise to provide IUP party members with employment in a non-profit company which will pay the highest possible wages, and provide job security for players who work at low health levels or who remain inactive for prolonged periods.
At this point, the companies don’t seem to be extremely regulated to ensure that only party members take jobs with them. In one company that we checked, only 2 of 6 employees were actually IUP. IUP Party Member Food provides food to markets in the eU.S., eSweden, eGreece, and eIreland. Wages ranged from 4 IEP (Apprentice wage – tied 6th best wage) to 15 IEP (Guru*** wage – first best wage) with all of their open positions offering competitive wages.
The announcement of these companies met a mixed, though not entirely even, reception. The Irish United Party is comfortably the most popular/largest party, beating the EFTS by 5 members, and Eire Aontaithe by 15. Despite this, the general feeling seems to be that these companies betray the philosophy of the IUP, presenting what might appear to be a socialist, or neo-communist, model of economy. While these companies don’t fit perfectly with those labels, they don’t portray libertarianism by any stretch of the imagination. The official wiki page for IUP does outline advocacy for government companies, among other things, but also talks about the importance of eIreland export economy and low import taxes. Even despite the explanations, which can be found in party doctrine, many accuse IUP of creating these comfy party jobs as a campaign method, or to increase their already large party base.
The ramifications of these kinds of government run non-profit companies are great in number and severe in long-term consequence. It’s hard to say how accurate this survey is, but a recent article by orangejuicemmm attempted to gauge eIrelands active users in an article called “Active Much?”. The result was 55 votes (we wont include comments because people probably voted and commented). If we are to use 55 as our base, we can say that we have at least 55 active users, maybe more (who knows how many more). We also know that the number of active users is going down rather than up – people are constantly leaving the game, moving to New Zealand, or just forgetting to log in. IUP Holdings seeks to employ 35 employees by its two food companies (only 18 currently employed right now). Supposing that 55 is the active population of Ireland, IUP unconditionally employs 32.73% of eIreland, and seeks to employ 63.64%; all without any company profit.
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This brings up several major questions:
In this model what place do regular profit companies have, and what will happen to the dozens of other companies that are competing for workers in sectors including and other than food? How will they make their wages competitive? If they can’t compete for employees Ireland wont be able to produce weapons, tickets, houses, and resources. Can our economy survive if eIrish are forced to buy imported products? What will happen to the diversity of products available, and price competition?
How can we expect our economy to succeed when 30-60% of our economy isn’t trying to make a profit or is working for one political party. Paying a dying citizen the same wages as a fit one isn’t fiscally healthy. If you aren’t paying your employees a wage equal to the value of their output, than you are either not a non-profit, or you are not making a profit because you have a loss.
How does a political party owning a company not count as a conflict of interest?
Isn’t the market control that this company will have over food prices a kind of government regulation of our economy?
Why do we need these companies? How much do they really improve employment conditions? Was the job market that bad before?
It may be that a true libertarian philosophy would have critical answers to these questions. We can’t totally dismiss the idea of government regulation, companies, or welfare type programs; but we have to think seriously about the effects of such political corporate crossovers. If there was an industry that our country needed for example, but that no one could break into because of high start up costs, I would fully support a temporary government company. Here though we are talking about the food industry, which already has more companies than it needs.
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IN OTHER NEWS:
New Countries: Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), Montenegro, Republic of China (Taiwan), Cyprus, Belarus, New Zealand. It appears that the map is filling in, and even if the admins are only creating fodder countries, at least it means less holes in the map which is always good.
SOMEWHAT RELATED BUT GENERALLY JUST FACINATING:
IRISH PARTIES SNAPSHOTS:
MCR = Member to Congress Ratio = The number of members of a certain party that congress members from that same party represent. X members : 1 Congress
(Information relevant on October 10, 2010)
1. Irish Union Party-- Center, Libertarian -- 52 Members -- 7 Congress (21.88 😵
-- MCR (7.42😎
2. Economic Free Thinkers Society -- Center, Libertarian -- 47 Members -- 12 Congress (37.50 😵
-- MCR (3.917)
3. Eire Aontaithe Center -- Libertarian -- 37 Members -- 7 Congress (21.88 😵
-- MCR (5.286)
4. The Labour Party -- Far-left, Libertarian -- 30 Members -- 3 Congress (9.38 😵
-- MCR (10.000)
5. Independent Voices -- (No Party Orientation) -- 26 Members -- 1 Congress (3.13 😵
-- MCR (26.000)
6. Irish Freedom Party -- Center-right, Libertarian -- 16 Members -- 0 Congress
-- MCR (-)
7. Saoirse -- Center-left, Libertarian -- 14 Members -- 1 Congress (3.13 😵
-- MCR (14.000)
8. Battle Hero Veteran’s Memorial -- Far-left, Anarchist -- 5 Members -- 0 Congress
-- MCR (-)
9. Nua Poblacht -- Libertarian -- 4 Members -- 1 Congress (3.13 😵
-- MCR (4.000)
10. Clann na nGael -- Center-right, Libertarian -- 3 Members -- 0 Congress
-- MCR (-)
11. Irish Conservative Party -- Far-right, Libertarian -- 2 Members -- 0 Congress
-- MCR (-)
Figures:
236 Registered Members (of any party)
32 Congress Members
236/ 32 = 7.375 Party Members to each Congress Member
MCR LIST:
EFTS 3.917
NP 4.000
EA 5.286
IUP 7.428
TLP 10.000
Srs 14.000
IV 26.000
Idol Parties:
I) The New Ireland Party
II) Irish Efficiency Party
III) Ireland
IV) The Liberal Conservatives
That’s everything for now. Hoping this has given you something to think about. Every bit of respect to members of the IUP, and, as always, best wishes to all of eIreland.
Ian E Coleman – The Coleman Global
***Other Stories in this Paper***
Introductions: "The Coleman Global Takes Off"
Report: “Northern Ireland Flops Again”
Facts And Figures: “Which Country Is Most Survivable For Beginners? (2 Part Special)”
Report: "New Changes Cause Wave of Dissent"
Report: “Ireland On The Ropes”
Report: “IUP Member Companies: Fine Wine Or Poison?”
Report: “Another Digest of Your New eIrish Parliament”
Follow Up: "IUP Member Companies: Fine Wine Or Poison?"
Report: "Ireland Hits Her Stride"
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Comments
Ian im really liking the details your article's are giving out. Keep up the good work mate
Great article and well informed and not just saying this because i got a mention, already subscribed. You should have more subscribers.
oh and Shouted.
Thanks guys!
V + S
Great info. Keep it up!
"many accuse IUP of creating these comfy party jobs as a campaign method, or to increase their already large party base."
Accuse? You make it sound like a crime. Any party is going to look out for their own. The focus on these companies is just political nonsense, the companies aren't communes and give more money through taxes to the government than other companies on the market, but more importantly, they are competitive on the market so do not upset the balance. In short: If IUP holding's GMs decide that want to allocate more money into wages than their own pockets, it makes absolutely no difference to the market (But does give more money to the government).
@Sennan Blake. That's a straw man. The point isn't so much where the money is going, but where the employees are going. There are too many companies and not enough citizens. The creation of these companies was ethically questionable.
IF the result was 55 and I guessed 56, do I get a prize?
Good article.
You put in a lot of good information.
Thanks.
@Ian E Coleman And your article is misleading. Ethically questionable? These companies only take in IUP members (when IUP holdings does its checking), so the job market is only being deprived of IUP members. Labour members are also out of the job market. However the different is, that the IUP companies provide products for the market, therefore it does not matter where the employees are, the same amount of products will be made.
Even so, the number of employees is not rising quickly so it would be arguable (if you think where the employees are going to be the major factor here) to say it is unethical for more companies to open up. That is not unethical, it just makes the job market more competitive and as that's what the IUP stands for: a competitive market.
@Sennan Blake. We'll have to agree to disagree. It's not just the blunt quanity of product that has to be considered. IUP has not checked to make sure that only IUP members are employed (I have), and IUP Holdings has two companies both manufacturing food products. That makes weapons companies less competitive as well as other industries. I just don't see the value of this idea, especially when the entire eWorld has lost almost 22 000 citizens in the last 3 weeks. Why can't we leave industry to private enterprise and leave politics out of it?
@Robin Locksley. Since I published this article there have been more votes added to that article by orangejuicemmm. So I guess not 😛
Readers should take note of that as well; *** those percentages and figures were just rough estimations for the sake of examples at the time. The percentages of the population employed by IUP Holdings would probably be smaller in reality. It's hard to say exactly since it all depends greatly on how active individual players are at certain times and bla bla bla. Anyway, just take everything with a grain of salt.
correction [: Independent Voices now have 29 [:
good article
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sub'd. Amazing writing skills 🙂
Wrote a short answer to this, feel free to have a look (:
On a general point I see that you jumped the gun using "active much" as a reference. it is now 74.
I liked your article though, even if it was a tad polemic. But hey, a good debate is healthy!
I look forward to the followups on this!
Cheers,
e-Kane
Ohh, and IUP has had normally functioning companies for a long time. As I am sure many other organizations have had.
Hence it is incorrect that this is a new influence on the market (:
I forgot to point this out "but a recent article by orangejuicemmm attempted to gauge eIrelands active users in an article called “Active Much?”. The result was 55 votes"
I said in the article OJ made that people from different countries where commenting and voting. 55 is not the active number of people as it wasn't ran right.
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20 days old and 30 subscibers.
Things can only get better for you Coleman as you learn more about the game. Some of the statistics which you include are definitely off, but they will come as you start to understand more about the game.
o7
The point isn't that it's the IUP, or wether this is something new or not. e-kane has a good point about the active users article, but I have adressed that, and I tried to put disclaimers into the article to show that those numbers really aren't 100% accurate, plus 1 or 2 comments I've already left.
There's a lot of people getting very defensive about this, but I don't have anything against the IUP. The IUP is the oldest still active party around, it has good policies, a history of good members, and it's the original center, libertarian party (as far as modern eIreland).
I'm just responding to the article that was written on the subject of IUP members companies, and writing down the concerns that I have with ANY party companies. As I've written before, this isn't the time to divide ourselves over party lines. The truth is that the popular political views in Ireland are represented in most of the popular parties. IUP, EA, and IFTS (for example) are extremely similar superficially, and still very similar at heart. Each party has its own members, and there is an important element of competition involved, but I don't think any of us mind too much who's running the show, as long as they do a good job.
What I've offered here is my own personal analysis of the situation. I try to stay unbiased, and I honestly don't think I've been around long enough to be playing any games. I'll admit that I didn't do a very good job of keeping this from looking like a smear article; but in all honesty I never intended it to be a smear article, and I would have written it even if I was a IUP member or if EA was the one getting involved in party companies. I'm sorry if I've upset people, but I'm still convinced that this all of this business is a bad idea.
The lad's new, so cut him some slack. I think everything productive that could be said, at this point has been said. I'd leave it at that
http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/in-defence-of-the-iup-a-kalashnikov-special-1541686/1/20
Every top 5 party in most countires have their own companies, its nothing new its nothing dramatic. i cant beleive the amount of drama you guys are stirring up over this lol.
@Matt I agree. This has been done informally for a very long time. Just because it has a name now, doesn't suddenly make it wrong. lol
BB, stop spamming XD