Join the new world

You may consider this my own manifesto in support of SaraDroz's program. The really important paragraphs are marked with a ***.


*** I must start by saying that I am glad that Sara is finally going to be the eUK PM (I for one have no doubts about it and I would have bet my scholarship on her victory even a month ago, when people said she was not ready). It does not surprise me one bit that her manifesto is really well thought and clearly put, containing many of the areas of interest I myself would have suggested to be taken into consideration. I have seen quite a lot of different manifestos throughout my eLife, and very few of those addressed problems with solutions - most of them only proposed solutions without saying why one would want to go that particular way. So, in order for my ideas to make any cents (!), I will start off with a rant on the New World. Then I will go through what I think are the main issues in this world. A short summary is at the very end.

I see it is obvious for most of us here that the New World is an account for starting anew. It is an opportunity for better systems and, to some extent, one can already see that, as there is a new stratification of powers in both inter- and intra-national contexts - we have borders we would have never dreamed of in real life (I speak mostly of Eastern Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa). Moreover, there are different kinds of institutions - here, family isn't the social cell any more, we have different culture and traditions (Theocrats, for example), we have a specific ramification of social networks. Nationality, migrations and circulation, trade and diplomacy are totally different than what we see in real life. Thus, nations have a different meaning here - it's not a classification, a piece of identity, it's more like the affiliation to a big team that works towards coming on top. Even nation-states are less probable here, which makes eRepublik's socio-political module so much different to interpret. Human life is of course extremely different, with poverty, hunger or war being more of an economical issue for the government than individual trouble for citizens to get over. Also, parties, elections, the government are more direct representations of the people due to the small population and the relatively low cost of participating - joining parties is absolutely free and is only three clicks away for level 7 citizens. So, if we skim through political doctrines from real life, we see that none of the blabbering there is applicable to this world, let alone be successful.

So, what are we, as ecitizens faithful to one country (in my case, two countries, I have to admit), and in the wake of these undeniable feats of our world, to do? First, we need to think outside the RL examples box - so, as real political doctrines address issues that are non-existent here, we would first have to identify the issues that need addressing to in the eUK. That would be general wellness & productivity, smart investments, army and social construction of networks as basis for everything else.

General Wellness & Productivity

I assume I am not the only one who sees NHS as it was and also as it is now as an important failure. eWelfare states' success is measured not by the increase in the general public's quality of life (wellness or HP, as they call it), but by the return of this increase to the economy in terms of active workforce with high productivity that would contribute to the tax funds and the GDP on the medium and long-term to such an extent that the expenditure is leveled out. By providing citizens with free wellness instead of information and tutorials, instead of socio-economic integration as an incentive to continue playing erepublik, the NHS did not at all encourage new citizens to take care of themselves, only providing them reasons to lay back and let the government feed them. The government should find the strings to touch a chord within our userbase and provide the good incentives for the citizens themselves to increase their own productivity - this does not necessarily mean that the programs should address the citizens, the new citizens or the suffering citizens directly, but put some natural social capital to good work (I will detail on that). Of course, you might say that with the decrease of NHS spending there might be short-term problems in the gift industry, but as the New World goes towards the leveling out of the world market, there surely are a few stable external markets that should bring a profit or can help relieve the market in case of over-production. This should turn into a non-issue as soon as productivity, income and awareness all increase among the general public.

Smart investments

Raw material productivity. The safest and surest way to make good use of the resources we are dealt with by the admins is to upgrade raw material companies in order to get extra productivity, practically for free. Also, we should not complain about multiple resource-regions, as other countries face a true iron curse. Countries with high iron productivity regions are more prone to bringing their land companies to bankruptcy, due to the volatility of the need for iron as caused by wars (or by the lack thereof). In prolonged times of peace, the iron companies face difficulties due to their own over-production, whereas during wars, the other raw material companies need to adjust and keep at the same pace with thriving iron companies that can sell at prices high enough to be able to even double the salaries offered (which is not the case with, say, wood companies that go slightly unaffected as the need for houses does not change much with different military conditions). Also, at this point, gift and ticket companies of a quality higher than Q1 are virtually a waste of resources, so downgrading is not a very bad idea, at least until further developments from the administration's side.

*** A waste of resources are also the companies in which the number of employees is far from the recommended roster. eRomanians had a neat solution to the productivity problem, by promoting an auditing program which rewarded companies with an appropriate number of workers of decent wellness who came to work regularly. By giving monetary prizes to the general managers of the companies (as verified with a script), they were encouraged to buy gifts for their workers, get in touch with them or replace them with more active citizens. I would see this implemented in the eUK.

Army

*** As for the army goes, I am glad to see that Sara has covered most of my ideas. Corps should be self-organized and, starting at some point, self-sustained. Also, a military corp should become a social group, with associated media such as a forum or an operations chat. Private competition in this field is highly encouraged, as competition and cooperation, as psychological terms, are deeply intertwined. A good morale should be assured by the incorporation of active and charismatic citizens in each of the corps - but that's already details. Most importantly, great armies are forged on the battlefield, so military exercises/missions should be highly priced.

Social

To wrap it up, I have heard rumors today that, following some erepublik meetings that took place in Romania, new real-life couples were formed. Well, if that isn't the backbone of social construction of networks, I don't know what is. I don't know if there have been any meetings in the UK, but I don't see any reasons against organizing such gatherings.

Summary

*** Sorry for the cluttered aspect of this article, I hope that these main ideas came through:
* we need the general public to be involved in everything, so that they feel they play, and that they will want to continue playing;
* we need to get rid of the NHS and replace it with a more motivation-driven system;
* we need clever investments, in the eUK or off-shore;
* we need a dynamic military system with a few corps and a lot of enthusiasm;
* we need to see more than the usual spammers troll around the forums - and I think there is no better example than the latest UKRP party president elections, and what happened around April 15th.

Yours,
Titu Maiorescu