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Once again, hooray for Jewitt being thoughtful and non-ridiculous!

Good article but I do have a couple of questions...

1)"120 jobs lost, permanently damaging our wood and constructions economies, and causing a severe rift for the workers as a flood of constructions will reenter the market, lowering the salaries."

When you say permanent damage are you using hyperbole? It does seem to be a stretch to say that this will so damage the economy as to be irreparable.

2)"Wood prices skyrocketed due to a loss of demand and constructions salaries dropped as the displaced workers tried to find jobs in Housing."

I can see the latter.. though I still think due to the aforementioned change there is bound to be some readjustment of salaries. The former leaves me stumped.. prices skyrocket due to lack of demand? Did you write this backwards or is their some economic force at work here I can't wrap my head around?

^ That was absolutely not meant to sound sarcastic. The guy knows his stuff. LISTEN!

@Dru You know what... I am listening and I am asking honest questions hoping to have them answered if I don't understand something. I do think it is a good article but those two issues confused me. Sorry if you don't like that.

Ogdensign:
For the permanently damaging comment, it would permanently damage our constructions industry. The required GOLD and USD it would take to rebuild the companies that would shut down would be that comparable to the eNational Budget.

As to my comment about wood prices skyrocketing, they did so for something that is unique to eRep and not RL factors: When your major buyers die out that leaves the lesser buyers and they will pay what ever it takes to keep their companies alive. Wood companies know this, and until Spain raised their tariffs the higher Q companies did not help in regulating the wood markets while the low Q (Q2 and Q1) dictated domestic prices. Only recently have they began to go down.

Ogdensighn: my "^" referred to my own prior comment, not to yours. Yours was a perfectly valid question. Sorry to miscommunicate. My bad.

A valid argument 😃

Voted and Subscribed.

Thanks for the explanation/clarification... Makes a lot of sense. As I said, good article and even better that I now understand those two points. I am a "winter-boomer" I believe according to the vernacular... and there for still trying to understand the ins and outs of the economic/market forces unique to the eWorld.

@Dru Okay thanks... My bad. I apologize as well for my misunderstanding.

No problem Ogdensign 😃 Half of my articles are informational anyways.

Hospitals and Defense Systems will always be difficult issues to address since only Governments can purchase their products and taxpayers are the ones who (a) Foot the Bill and (b) are employed by the businesses. They are in effect, Government Departments. The Department of Health and Human Services and The Department of Defense. Employees are essentially Govt Workers living on taxpayer money.

As much of a free market guy that I am, you might as well nationalize the DS and HOS industries along with some Wood to feed it and call it a day. The only down side is that wages must remain competitive and that could mean products are produced at a loss.

There are circumstances in microeconomic theory where a rational-actor firm, facing declining demand, may raise their prices in an attempt to offset declining sales and cover overhead. In RL, this happened at the Chinese restaurant down the block from me raised their sesame chicken combo from $6 to $7—which is sad, because this is a staple food for New York City graduate students.

Macroeconomic forces are eventually supposed to sort these inefficiencies out over the long term, but I don't know what kind of weird distortions may be at play in eRepublik markets.

I know I'm going to get shot for this..

But I'm all for higher tax. Have been since January, way before a lot of eDrama occurred. As such, I'm for the purchasing of DS/HOS as well.

A fantastic thing about a lot of games I play (I enjoy a slew of RTS and strategy titles) is that you can never be too ready. Even if you're inching by, you still need important elements in infrastructure.. in this case, we're also keep alive a lot of the industries that help bring in revenue.

Revenue, regardless of situation, is a great thing.. whether that be a few bucks or thousands of gold.

Interesting idea. Is it certain that 1 purchase a month will be enough to keep those 120 jobs chugging along?

^Blue Holt

Exactly. I'm not sure I understand the clamor for tax relief, except on the crucial newb ingredient of food. The government needs resources — 51 regions and only a smattering of hospitals throughout. Suppose we ever were to have a broad-scale war against a hypothetical enemy with resources on the level of Indonesia, Romania, or Spain (or a coalition of other foreign players who would enjoy nothing better than messing the US up).

I wish I understood better how the income tax/tarriff/VAT system worked. The model as a whole is still not entirely clear to me.

so how much $ is the gov. subsidizing 120 workers for a month? why not have a multi month plan of buying certain constructions, and the companies can bid on them as the plan calls for them to be bought. low bid wins. other companies that lose and want to stay open can export to someone else, and try to bid lower next time.

we should still buy some constructions, yes, and perhaps one constuction should be good. Still, exporting needs to be done I don't think we can support constructions one one construction a week.

Exactly. The Government should post offers for what it wants:

Q5 Defense System for Alabama Within 30/Days

The Q5 Companies (Foreign or Domestic) Submit bids for that contract. The lowest bidder wins. That company is informed of their selection and begins production. When completed, they post the Q5DS for sale at the agreed price and the Govt will immediately post a bill to buy the Q5DS. Any other firm who posts sales in the market will be ignored by the government. Even low ball offers because it would threaten the who contract bid process. Only in time of war and direct threat to a region could such rules be suspended.

you love men?

Also, you forgot the option of having our construction companies exporting their goods, it's rather important and a viable solution. Provided of course, that these companies should go look to make sales overseas themselves.

What some may fail to realize is just how important the Q4 and Q5 companies are. They are extremely expensive to operate, the cost of upgrades at those levels is staggering, 200 gold to upgrade to Q5. These companies have invested an enormous amount of time and effort building themselves up. If we allow them to go under, we are in effect screwed. Even if they simply stop production, it takes a long time to produce High quality constructions. What if we need one? Exporting is helpful too, but just ask Kyle it's not easy. We can't allow these companies to just sit with stock, they can't afford it. We certainly wouldn't want to let them sell to PEACE would we?

Look around a little bit, we are a strong nation, yes, but there are others who are strong as well. What if our enemies get all fired up for the new war mod and decide their time is now? What if stuff goes south with Romania? Who has our back then? The fact is the best offense is a good defense. The more Q5's we get the better. This is a game, not RL. While we Americans tend to believe in a peaceful coexistence, a lot of our competitors in this game seek global dominance. We better be ready.

The money aspect is the downside. We were ripped off and that's the only reason this is an issue. As Jewitt points out, our nation was on track before. We will recover, although it is taking longer than expected. Our citizens have all been put out, people are pissed, congress is pissed, as a Conservative I'm pissed. As Americans, we are resilient. The simple fact is we are all on this stinkship together. Articles like this one here, show a different side of the argument. One a lot may not yet understand. We just have to work together for the middle road.
We will recover, we will prosper, and we will be stronger for it in the end.

voted.

@Alby

do you know anything of business and of producing high quality constructions?

Justinious: here here! I cannot even begin to fathom the complexity, funds, and what not needed to deal with a Q4+ HOS/DS. I am happy running my little Q3 wood company. I can tell everyone now, though, that it takes at least 390 GOLD just to get up to Q5, not including the 40+ GOLD it would take before your FIRST product is made. I consider those managing these companies to be some of our brightest GMs.

Justin@

Yes. I run one.

1. Stop buying constructions.
2. Distribute money to people.
3. Make Country Corporations.
4. Make Socialism.
5. ???
6. PROFIT!!!

a little strange to qoute yourself in an article you wrote isn't it?

Oh, and voted and subscribed.

really good article, voted

@Joe DaSmoe, No one, I repeat, NO ONE, should ever have to export a construction, unless the country is coming to them to buy it. It is such a PAIN IN THE ASS. I refuse to do it unless a country comes to me.

@Alby, is it a construction business? If not then you have no idea what is it so carry $4000 and worry if you'll have enough to pay your employees and buy raw materials for the rest of the week. If it's food or gifts, then you can't talk about it, you have constant PROFIT (not just income, constant profit). Constructions actually take planning, but once you start it you get good, sometimes. I maintain a spreadsheet, planning how often I'll be able to buy wood, when I will run out of money, or out of supplies, and how much I SHOULD produce a day. Thank god for the constant production output (even though it lowers my production, thank you great employees)

@Jewitt, this such an awesome article. I've voted it with all my available ORGs, and if any article should be stickied to the top of the news forever this should be it.

Voted.

You all sound like Obama IRL, "Let us borrow 800 billion to spend on the government to 'create jobs'. Yes we know that we have horribly mismanaged money to date, and in fact allowed the theft of the entire freeking treasury, but give us more money no one has and we will ensure that 120 jobs stick around". Okay... 120 jobs, out of NINE THOUSAND CITIZENS!?

This isn't even a blip on the radar. Government isn't responsible for job creation in a capitalist society. Doesn't work IRL, doesn't work here. Yes, eRep isn't RL, but there ARE concepts that carry over, and this is one of them.

"If government is your answer, you really just don't understand the question"

Big Horn Co-op, the reason why we have this issue is because, as Congressmen, we have issues. 1. People want wealth and war. 2. People want low taxes. 3. If 100 or so people become unemployed, we will be blamed since the government is the only buyer (Where do our tax dollars go? Citizen fee? WTF is that?). This is why I am writing on it, because no matter what happens people will blame the government and I am only trying to inform the populous of the behind-the-scenes actions.

Great comment by Joe DaSmoe

I would say to stop buying is bad but we need to cut out the spending that isn't need. Q4 and Q5s are NOT needed in central states such as a state of Iowa, im not saying we have one there I haven't checked. We need to stop buying things to help companies. It is BAD if companies rely upon the Government for paychecks.

More thought needs to be put into these things. Such as "Does this region need it?" "Can we afford it?" "Do we even need this building?". We should not have high taxes because our politcians can not stop buying things. We put you in place to run our country efficiently. Not line companies pockets and/or spend our money. We will NOT suffer because you can not get your acts together. Seeing someone propose 15gold for his company irks me to no end.

Who would the companies be exporting to specifically,since it seems like that'd bring in the most gold to eUSA, because shouldn't there be a selective exportation so that we don't empower countries that already pose a threat?

Actual Armandez, under the current battle rules 1 Q5 Hospital in the Center of the country would be the most ideal as it can't be captured on the first day of a war and they would have to push through several states and many days of war to get there. But the problem is if our Q5 hospital is captured, then we dont have one at all. The reason to buy several and to spread them out is purely a defense procedure since no one knows what the future brings. But yes the DS idealy should go next to dangerous borders first and inner states last.

You cant place all the burden on the tax payer. The government smust do its job to cut spending as much as it can. Raising tax depresses everyones wages. Thats thousands of people far more than your 120. Those 120 could easily find other work, and Ive got to think everyone in congress know that they could cuts spending in some areas. I dont actually know what you guys spend the money of so I cant give details but Ive never seen a budget that couldnt be trimmed.

@ Arejayem if we start the war I think, THINK, we have to use a bordering region.

@everyone
I keep saying it. We citizens will NOT carry the bills. We elect you to keep are taxes at a level we can grow at but isn't breaking our backs. If the Governments wants this high spending bill it NEEDS to find it's own sources of income besides us. The Government NEEDS to realize this and stop living under a rock surrounded by rocks. It is time to smell the coffee and realize we can not carry the Government the whole way. Either you will drive people out or they will elect more sensible individuals. Stop playing politics with us and dancing in circles and start fixing problems and tightening our budget.

I appreciate this article a lot. I do hope U.S. businesses can export overseas, lest they have to pack up and go home.

haha! jewitt loves men!! that was funny... i wonder if anybody else picked up on that?

I vote for a bailout!

Jewitt's org: Our current government spending (our choice), aside from constructions, is 0. Yes, 0. What costs us is citizen fees, 5 USD per citizen adds up to thousands of USD a day going to these new citizens.

We cannot cut spending on that since 5 is the lowest a citizen fee can be. The issue is buying constructions, which is our only other expenses at current.

Ive yet to actually see why we couldnt suspend buying constructs for awhile. I find it hilarious that the governemnt thinks it would kill us. The economic impact of closing down those 3 companies is fall less than 12k citizens at 20%. Your basically eliminating a good 200-300 workers pay with your current taxes. Thats more of an impact than your 120. You just dont want to shut down the contruction because many of the people high up in the government seem to own those companies, and this is all under the assumption that they dont start to export which would sovle the problem pretty much all together.
1.construction exports they can stay opened.
2.we stop buying until the government is happy with the amount of money they have.
3.You wont have to have heavy taxes on citizens.

Construction doesnt have to completely run by the government they should be expected to to fend for themselves atleast so what. Just like every other company and industry.

again I always go for least harm. the dollars is taxes being taken are far more than that which is required setup construction for exporting. The export is 20gold per country thats not too bad and would easily be cheaper than doubling taxes. at USD1360 roughly per export license It would be far cheaper for the government to setup the companies to export than to keep them on when they're costing us far more than that to keep employed. This would be a win win. No more value loss to the government, construction still gets to sell their products, and we all get lower taxes. I realize that construction needs government involvment but thats not an excuse to be completely dependent on them. As a company you should be looking for problems like this. The governemnt doesnt really have the money to spend on the constructs right now so logically you should have automatically turned to anther group that could, aka exporting, The risk you take on by only selling to one person/group is when or if they fail you fail with them. The taxs payed shouldnt be held responsable filling your budget. Suplments might be needed but as of right now for how every construction person seems to want to put it all of your funds are straight from the government, which makes since since only they need the buildings, but instead on you creating diversification to provide leway for both you and the government you sit back not worrying because your pretty well promised your given income. I go with the theory if you cant compete even with assistance to get export license the you shouldnt be around.

@mplonestartrack

When I say some of those questions, im still in doubt even at a forums they discuss them.

As someone else pointed out these construction companies seem to be the Congressmen's companies. It wouldn't surprise me if Congress defends buying things when their companies are at stake.

If someone is going to make a Q5 Hopsital or DS THEY should have thought out how to get their BESIDES the US Government. It is their fault for not doing otherwise. It is my fault my Wood company failed because Q1 isn't the best and I wasn't exporting. I didn't plan enough. To be successful you must plan. You can NEVER EVER EVER EVER rely upon one source of income.

I will NOT support a Government that uses MY tax money to line their companies pockets and/or keep companies that were stupid enough to rely upon one source of income. I will support high taxes if it can be proved Construction spending is low and the buildings it buys are good for the region it is in and that it isn't lining a Congressman or womans pocket. I encourage EVERYONE to look at your Congressman or woman and ensure they are not doing some of the above and if they are don't reelect these corrupt people. There are people in Congress putting up things such as giving 15gold to their company. Though I know that one was supported by anyone else. The politcian in question should have never even thought of such a thing.

Maybe im just rambling but Congress I promise you, you screw us over with High Taxes and have nothing to show for it but high bills because your lining yours and your friends pockets you probably won't be reelected.

Armandez, many of the congressmen which are affected (Myself [wood], Kyle (Hospital), Scrabman (DS), and so forth) are actually arguing for the companies to export, and not asking the government to keep buying. I will not deny, however, saying that e should buy at least one Q5 hospital every month (if that is the only construction we buy that month) so we can progress at the same level, or above, as our competing rival nations.

As to "lining pockets," it seems like anything we do is lining our pockets. I purposely, when the Emergency Tax Policy was enacted, asked to make the wood proposal. That way everyone would know I recognize the harm and risk involved as I myself rely on wood for my income. This symbolism from select congressmen prove they are not working to benefit themselves, but for how they perceive as the better of the nation. If the citizens do not like the job their congressman is doing (and trust me, everyone that reads my articles at least hears an earful about talking to their congressman) than I would encourage them to vote that person out of office; be the congressman a friend of mine or not.

Ya I wouldnt even go so far as to actually say their lining their poickets. They're probably not doing much better than breaking even, and in the reguard I can simpethis with them. The question becomes if harm is going to be incurred how and where should we take it. The whole situation seems to in a bit of a rough spot. Exporting would work but finding other gov's that will buy them over an extended period of time would be difficult and even if we found some it would provide them with leverage on us since they would be holding the industry up. On the other hand buying once a week will break our backs and buying at a low enough rate to actually raise the treasury at a decent rate will crush the construction industry. So no matter what we're going to have to split this somewhere in the middle as neither side can shoulder the burden on their own. The grey areas are what kill congress as no ones completely happy, and its hard to get it perfect. Then when they pass multi bills on the same subject after apparently failing it makes them look like they dont knwow hat their doing. I really think the governemnt needs a good division of PR. Just read the articiles and their comments.

On an off note is there any indication that the admins might actually restore our treasury?