[Derp4PotUS] A Work in Progress
Derphoof
If you’ve been reading my articles, you’ve likely discerned that my primary concern with with our local domestic community and the issues it faces. These are issues of inactivity, forum functionality, and distrust of government spending.
People bemoan how the community is inactive or in decline. The discord channels are inactive. The media is dead. Players in different parties struggle to get along or interact with each other in meaningful ways. Government spending and hoarding is viewed with suspicion by a good portion of the community as well. These are all social problems facing our country, and we are all to blame for it.
And we must all be tasked with fixing it.
What’s the use of complaining about our community, if we aren’t working to build a better one? We must work to build the community we wish to play and belong in, as much as we can. That goes from the PotUS on down to the new guys.
Our community is a constant work in progress. It's up to us to continue that work.
To help bring back the media, I want to bring back some of the official Gov’t Media. I’d bring back our DoD Orders, so players know what RWs and important battles are scheduled for the day. Sometimes these get pushed down on the National Feed, which some players may not check anyways.
Just as well, I’d like to bring back and revamp the WHPR. I’d like to focus on international events and interviews, to better inform our player base about what’s going on in different countries. I’ve also considered bringing back eNPR in some way shape or form, to have a live conversation with different players. Maybe it becomes a simple hangout, playing card games on a twitch stream. Then again, maybe live community activities are too ambitious nowadays.
Just as well, I’d like to run media competitions for prizes. I’m sure we can think of some good topics to write about, and a good group of folks can judge them. Perhaps we can get our PP’s (lol) to judge them fairly.
As for the forum, there are ongoing attempts to redo and clean up some of the constitution and code. Just as well, some want to overhaul how the forum functions, to increase activity and trust from all parties on the forum. While it is not the function of the President to help overhaul Congress, I support efforts to increase activity in those boards. They see a problem and seek to fix it, and I’m sure there will be vigorous debate around any changes.
Now, government spending is likely what this campaign is known for at this point. This is because much attention was given to my idea for a tax dividend. Rest assured that if I do not win the election, I will push forward with this idea in Congress, which holds the power of the purse. I will elaborate further on this, later in the article.
While effectively lowering taxes on the people, I’m also in support of analyzing where our tax dollars go. I’ve heard from party officials that some are in favor of an audit of the Congressional Budget Office, the entity that handles our treasury, and the nation’s orgs. While such an audit would come from an act of Congress, I am in support of any audit. After all, I know the audit will come back squeaky clean, and the CBO Directors can probably make quick work of it.
However, my preference as PotUS is still for full numbers in the treasury to remain under wraps. So, I’d like for CBO to report to Congress in private with the details it desires and codifies in legislation. Meanwhile, the Speaker will put out a summary of the audit in the public newspaper, approved by the PP’s.
The Permanent Dividend
The amount we collected in taxes for the past seven full days, at the time of writing, was $1,629,588.
That’s a lot of money.
Without CO’s to directly affect the battles, we don’t have as much use for this money. Our money primarily sits back and does nothing. So, why not focus it back on our citizens and their needs? That’s what my proposed Permanent Dividend tries to do.
To start, I’d like to propose giving back 25% of our tax dollars ($407,397) to citizens who sign in every day by commenting on a post or filling in a form posted the national feed. You will receive a portion based on how many days you signed in. For those who sign in, a 10% bonus will be given for the following:
250 Ground Kills in D1-D3.
Appearing in the Top 100 for Ground Opponents Defeated in D4
Appearing in the Top 100 for Air Opponents Defeated.
For reference, people currently sign-in on the National Feed for AARP. Typically, about 30-40 people sign in. Lets say that the same 40 citizens sign in all week, and nobody else does. Each player who signed in would receive $10,184. If one of those players were to meet the military requirements, they would receive a 20% bonus, resulting in a $12,220 payment for the week.
Now, this obviously means less money if more people sign-in. If Congress allowed, I would set thresholds to increase the percentage, based on how many people signed in. However, it could not exceed 50% ($814,000) of the weekly intake. For instance, 0-100 players = 25%, 100-149 = 40%, 150-200 = 45%, 200+ = 50%.)
This money would be very helpful to the average citizen, whether they want to buy houses, upgrade their training centers, buy weapons/food, etc..
All in all, I believe there are ways that we can revitalize and help our aging community. These are just a few ways that we can do this. However, I don’t have all of the answers!
If you have ideas of your own, write about them! Take them to Congress! What do you want to see? This is our game and our community!
Let’s make the most of it!
Comments
Please consider voting for me (Derphoof) in your party primaries!
SFP: http://sfp-erep.forumotion.com/t1475-cp-primary-sept-2019#15956
Feds: https://eusaforums.com/forum/index.php?topic=47589.0
If you'd like to be considered to serve in a Derpy Cabinet, fill out this form:
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You can simplify the tasks by authorizing the political parties.
Each party, who has congress members, is the best channel for redistributing these.
This is why I am advocating for making the number of parties even less.
In fact, we do not need more parties. Five is enough, as long as each one is effectively managed and works in agreement with the Government's regulation.
This impossible to enforce (if anyone wanted to). Anyone can start a PP, a few gold and you get to start a new PP. Not a bad thing, IMHO.
That is the beauty of democracy.
Yes, you are absolutely correct. We are in no position to hinder people from making new party. However, I see this as a good campaign of unity. No one will argue that non-congressional members have been left far behind with no voice at all in the Congress.
Does your revenue number include money returned and paid out for taxes on occupied regions from TW's? I dont recall how I calculated it, but it seems like revenue was ~10kk a month just a few months ago..
The CBO is going to audit itself and keep the results in Private Congress out of public view?
We all do a lot of things out of habit and don't give it much thought.. I'm not sure there's really any need (or justification) for hiding the numbers anymore, or hiding the money away in varied accounts for that matter.
Real transparency would have it in the CBO org so that anyone with a desire to do so could watch it come and go.
If that money is directly transferred to the in-game treasury, via donations, then it’s been counted. I simply took the past seven days of cash flow from the economy page, for a rough estimate. The CBO could probably give me a far more accurate assessment.
As for the audit, I’m sure the CBO Directors would be involved somehow. It’d be up to Congress to figure out which select people they trust with the task. It’d be the first “Congressional Committee” in a long long time.
We definitely do many things out of habit. I don’t know if it’s worth hiding the full amount to “keep em guessing” like in old times, but it’s still kinda fun imo.
I cant say for sure now with new CBO ppl, but the tax returns were being done as direct donations to Evry before.. what I saw of it before pulling out of groups and pm's.
It's also worth nothing that a majority of the elected congress and an overwhelming majority of the active player population don't go to the eUS forums on any consistent basis, if it all.
Talking to what is mostly the same small group of people that have hung out there for years isn't going to do much for community building.
The whole point of an audit is to reassure American citizens that their tax revenue is being handled properly and continuing to hide it in Private Congress defeats that purpose. Any audit should include an accounting of all government-owned infrastructure, including and infrastructure owned by the old USAF.
I think you probably need to better identify who your "community" is before you can think to rescue it.
One small thing you might consider if the "in game community" is your target community is preventing folks with dead accounts from shitting up 'meta' discussions wherever those eventually take place.
If the forum crowd are your target community you can just go be engaging at the forum and ignore the game like the rest of them.
Figure out how to make Franklin Stone stfu and stop tormenting the few remaining active players who do care and do put in their resources and energy to making the game better for their peers. There are good and decent folks that deserve some consideration and the opportunity to enjoy their spare time here without his lying idiocy.
YOU can shut me the f*** up by agreeing to a full and complete public audit of all Tax Revenue and placing it in the CBO. A complete and full public audit of all government-owned infrastructure, including any infrastructure owned by the old USAF.
You and your mates persecuted the BSP for walking away with government-owned infrastructure so a complete and full public accounting of the infrastructure owned by the USAF when it folded should be accomplished.
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Wow. Triggered much? So which one triggered you...the tax audit or the infrastructure audit? I am simply demanding from the government, the USAF and those who ran it is exactly what they demanded of VMA-214 The Black Sheep. Also didn't VMA-214 repay the cost of said infrastructure? Maybe the Congressional Librarian could research that and post the link to that conversation here.
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Lmao an audit? What will they think of next
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The reason I no longer take on any jobs is the one time I did I was accused of stealing $7K, which I repaid out of my pocket and handed the program back to the government. As for the BU2SU BS...I followed the rules of the program set forth by the government and stopped requesting from it once the rules changed. Don't be mad at me for your rules.
Not sure exactly which citizens who were mean to me that have left you're referring to but many of you remain on the forum and in-game in positions of power and seem unduly triggered at the thought of a public audit. You wouldn't be holding and using for personal gain any USAF government-owned infrastructure, right? I mean you did run the USAF, correct?
Yes, I sim race on a racing simulator against real NASCAR drivers (Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhart Jr.) and real Formula 1 driver (Max Verstappen) and in which I have managed to land a sponsor and win close to $2K in racing credit and a few hundred in cash. Don't be mad at me cause you choose to spend your plastic on this game with pixelated rewards that are totally worthless.
Rainy Sunday: 'VMA didn't repay shit. Firo did.'
...and that matters why?
I am going to go ahead and accept the credit/blame for the audit talk, I ran the poll last month and asked our party to decide if it should be a legislative priority. With the exception of 1 'unsure' vote the rest of the party said yes to the audit.
There is also extensive support for the audit from outside of SFP.
This is not a witch hunt, this is an audit, the goal is to fully map out our resources and possibly reallocate them in a more intuitive manner.
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You. You're the one getting personal over a matter which seems to have wide support.
So even though the USAF received a Budget of $200K per week for months you lost $780K running a government-funded Military Unit? Also, it seems to be the current government that can raise the dead as needed.
As the Madman stated this is not a witch hunt. This is an audit, the goal is to determine where and how our resources are committed and possibly reallocate them. Seems very reasonable that those paying taxes should be informed of how it is being spent.
A couple of notes:
Focus should be on the in-game community. I’m not interested in what the dead have to say, when it comes to what is being done here and now. Just as well, I highly doubt the dead even care. That’s the reason they’re dead.
I’m often concerned and frustrated by FS’ rhetoric in this game. He has driven many people off, or at least made them crazy, with his divisive and conspiratorial rhetoric. He’s been in Congress, votes for the budgets, and he knows there is no misappropriation. His rhetoric is likely why the SFP members didn’t vote him into a decent position on the congressional ballot.
FS is one of the reasons why I latched onto the “audit” talk. Maybe this can finally be an action that shuts him up, or at least gets people to stop taking his rhetoric seriously. Though I’m sure he will find new reasons to rail against people.
All I have ever asked is that full and accurate accounting of where and how American Tax Revenue is being spent and by whom be made publicly available. Even RL America's can access the Federal Budget.
https://www.cbo.gov/topics/budget
You can also access the eUS Federal Budget! It also shows you where funds are spent, and by which department! You even voted for it!
https://eusaforums.com/forum/index.php?topic=47539.0
Why are you pretending that this isn’t publicly available information? You don’t even need an account to view it!
Sup Derp
Where are the anime gifs?
I didnt realize the "audit" idea stemmed from existing forum "conversation".. ughh.. lol.
I never heard of Evry selling cc and I doubt she was buying shoes and dresses with it.. The most practical solution is to just get it all in one org with a publicly viewable doc on transactions. An actual audit of information created and maintained by the ppl you're trying to audit seems like a lot of work just for show.
Transparency ends the conversation, now and forever.
I'm no FS, but the shell game with the country's money did always seem a little shady..
This is a platform to like
Because they are totally paying Dinnyin and me not to snitch on all the stealing they've been doing? Give me a break. We've spent millions of cc over the years on hundreds of battles via combat orders and other methods. If the money wasn't there, it wouldn't be there to spend when we've spent it.
The CBO has never been more transparent than it is today, reporting to Congress on a monthly basis the details of all incomes and spending. Nothing will ever be enough for Franklin.
oh Derpy, you are pissing off the most elite. REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE lel
Full Support!
I can dig it.
I’m pretty much dead ingame (I just work in my companies and that’s it), but all I got to say is congratz Derp for another month as CP! And good luck with your program. I like the idea of the Permanent Dividend, even if that may take some energy/time to do it, but it’s worth a shot.