Shanethe13's Presidential Speech

Day 315, 13:39 • Published in Czech Republic Germany • by shanethe13

When I logged onto Erepublik today, I expected to read all the new articles, train, and maybe write an article or two; was I ever surprised. One of the first things I saw after logging in, was that I had been nominated as the Slavic Party's candidate for tomorrow's presidential elections. While I can certainly say that I was not expecting this, it would be wrong to say I'm not prepared. In retrospect, I've been preparing for something like this for a long time, I just didn't think I would get my opportunity as soon as I did.

Enough of that, I think it's best that I state my policies regarding any changes I would make to the country if elected. While I've always agreed with the platforms Ivan Hat and Parrot based their campaigns on, I've never felt like either one was perfect in every way, rather that each had unique points which contributed to them as a whole. Because of this, my policies are based on neither party's, and instead draw out the pros of each.

Economic Policies:
If elected, I would strive to make this country the economic capital of the world. To start, I would set the income tax to 0% and the VAT to 5% for every product. This would ensure that the Czech Republic would be the most cost-effective country to produce goods in. By then negotiating a low trading tax with every nation, we would ensure that our country would draw the biggest of businesses in, providing both the businesses, and the employees with 100% profit on every sale. With the arrival of new businesses, our unemployment rate would decrease exponentially, until every player that is an active citizen would be guaranteed a job. Finally, with the large quantity of exporting we would be doing, the CZK would be in great demand, increasing its strength greatly.

Military Policies:
Through creating a government run military entity, we not only unify the country as a whole, but are also able to promote active interest in the affairs of our army. While I would love to accomplish this through the form of gifting active soldiers, this would prove to be an ineffective strategy with the coming release of V1. Gifts require diamonds to produce, and as we lack any natural diamonds, the venture would result in economic loses for the country. Because of this, we will instead provide active soldiers with monetary rewards. Any level gained in strength which is reported to a government official, would be rewarded with fifty(50) CZK. This gives the citizens a reason to care for their country's military, giving them pride in their nation, and promoting active interest in their daily training.

Foreign Policies:
While the two policies I mentioned previously drew ideas from both parties, I feel as if I should take a unique stand on the issue of foreign affairs. As of now, I believe that the Czech Republic should remain a neutral country, instead creating alliances with nations from both PEACE and Atlantis. While the reason for this may not seem clear, in the event of an invasion, this alone could be enough to prevent a war. With countries backing us from both sides of the spectrum, any attempt at invading us would result in a deadlock, forcing both alliances to cease any involvement in the matter, lest they sacrifice any positive relations they may have with our allies.

Fundraising:
Up until now, many of our presidents have taken it upon themselves to burn any excess CZK they come across, in order to deal with inflation. However, I feel as if this is not the answer. Inflation is not having too much money, instead it is not having a large enough market for the CZK. The economic policies mentioned above remedy this problem, so the only issue that remains, is how the government will generate revenue. Rather than burning any CZK the government comes across, we will instead sell it on the monetary market for GOLD. GOLD is a universal currency, and as such, is insured in times of depression. If the value of our dollar ever crashes, the GOLD in our coffers will keep the country running until we are able to rebuild the economy.

Citizens Fee:
One of the most important things a government can do, is ensure the country is subject to an ever-increasing population. It isn't enough for us to gain new citizens, instead we need these players to stay. For a large period of time, our country had a citizen's fee of 10 CZK. Contrary to popular belief, this initial sum of currency isn't enough to sustain a healthy lifestyle, sooner or later, you will find yourself in need of more money, and there are dozens of other countries who can offer it to you. By setting the citizens fee to fifty(50) CZK, any new players arriving in our country will find themselves with enough money to maintain themselves until they find a job. This will help draw in new players, and more importantly, keep old ones.

Future Plans:
One thing I've noticed, is that most of our current candidates for presidential have been focusing on the present, however, we need to look towards the future. With V1 being released in a matter of weeks, many aspects of the game dynamics will change drastically. For example, one major addition to the game with be a module API. For those of you that don't know, an API is essentially a group of pre-defined functions that allow programmers to add new features to an existing piece of software. In this case, programmers will be able to create third-party additions to Erepublik, such as Casino Modules, or banks. This will give the Czech Republic yet another way to make their mark. Through sponsoring programmers, paying them to create software specifically for our country, we could very well find ourselves the center of new advancements in Erepublik.

Over the past few months the Czech Republic has been slowly shrinking, going down in the rankings every day. We've had many presidents in the past few months, but none of them have made their mark. Our country needs to change, and I know how to change it.

Vote Shanethe13 for tomorrow's presidential elections, and Slavic Party for congress!