Department of Education

US Department of Education (US DoE)

File:DoE.jpg

Welcome to the Department of Education. At the DoE you may find many articles to help you with eRepublik including Education Information Hub. Here at the DoE we are trying hard to help out newer citizens, such as yourself, by connecting them to pertinent educational material. If you do not find what you are looking for do not hesitate to ask, we will be glad to help you out. Additional DoE information can be found on the eUSForum which is the only official forum of the US. If you have not registered on the eUSForum, we strongly encourage that you do so today.

First Days in eRepublik

An important thing to know about eRepublik is that your ability to participate in society is contingent on the amount of experience points you have amassed. Here is an assembled list of things to do as a citizen of this world.

My Places

File:My Place Menu.png

My places menu tab

My Places is the second option on the main menu. Your in-game Job, Training, and Company locations can be found in the My Places Page.

Importance of Missions

Missions is the last task area which can be found in the most left task bar right under your profile, health, and local currencies. As a new player, Plato has given you missions that will serve as tutorials for game mechanics and instructions. Not only will you be monetarily rewarded for your efforts, but doing missions will help build a foundation for future growth and help you earn valuable experience points.

Citizen Profile

Your citizen's Profile page and be accessed by locating the profile task bar and then clicking on your citizen's name which is a hyperlink. If you are serious about becoming a permanent resident of the new eWorld, we suggest you explore this area by editing your profile, uploading an avatar image, and write a small tidbit about yourself or your persona in the Your Description text area.

Market

Market drop-down menu.

Market is the fourth option on the main menu. Click Market to view the various markets in eRepublik.

Marketplace

Users will select Marketplace from the Market menu to purchase both manufactured goods and raw materials.

Buy Food - Food increases the citizen's wellness. Food, like all products, are purchased in the marketplace.

Buy Weapons - A weapon increases damage a citizen deals out in the battlefield during a battle

On this page you have three filters:

• Product/industry [you select food as a product]
• Quality level [you can choose one of the six quality levels]
• Market [selection of all eRepublik countries, however your citizen's country is the default]

Remember that you cannot buy food or weapons if you have no money, therefore you need to have a revenue source.

Job Market

The Job Market screen displays the available jobs for your country.

Get a job - Just like in real life, your survival depends on your ability to buy the resources that are necessary for living in this world. It is the most important thing for you to do when you first start off.

The first step is to visit the Job market. Here you will be able to browse through all the job offers posted by companies in eRepublik and pick the one that fits you best.

Job Market will list the job offers posted by the employer.

This page will list the job offers (arranged by the offered salary first) as follows:

• Employer (Avatar, Name),
• Offered Salary,
• Apply link.

In order to get a job, you have to press the 'Apply' button.
When your citizen becomes employee for the first time it receives 5 Experience points.

Note: that you cannot get a job in a different country than the one you live in, if you own a company, or if you are already an employee.

Note: you may also search for jobs by clicking on the Get a job button under the Employer section in the My Places page.

You are NOT allowed to resign your position before 72 hours from the moment you were hired, unless:

• the company hasn't got the necessary amount of money in the accounts to pay your salary;
• the company has 0 Raw Materials in stock.

When you are hired, the Company Manager cannot lower your salary for 3 days.

Work

Work as either an employee or manager is accessed from My places tab in the main menu.

In order for an employee to work, the company must have enough money to pay him and enough raw materials to produce goods (for product companies).

Note: as a manager of a company you do not earn a wage.

An employee is able to work by simply pressing the “Work” button.

After pressing work:

• productivity is added in the product queue, products are being created when units are completed;
• you will receive your daily salary;
• you will receive one Experience Point.

10 points of wellness is lost every time you work for each company you work for.

If your wellness is below the quality level of the company, you will not be allowed to work.

For every 30 days in-a-row worked, you will achieve an “Hardworker" medal.

Get Involved

Talk to experienced players, read the new player’s guide, and explore the Wiki. The more you know about eRepublik, the more fun it will be.

Forums

• eUSA Forum

Internet Relay Chat

Get on Internet Relay Chat. It is the primary means of real-time communication in erepublik and each party has their own chat channel. Below are instructions for connecting via IRC.

IRC Clients

There are many IRC clients and web pages available to get you connected. Each has its own features and requirements. Below are just a few clients available for your use.

Mibbet Web Client

Chatzilla add-on for FireFox

IceChat IRC

1. The only server for American eRepublik chat is Rizon. Each client is different for setting your default server so follow their instructions.

2. Enter and Register your nick. I would highly suggest that your nickname is the same as your in-game eRepublik name.

3. To register your nickname, use the following syntax:

Code: /msg NickServ REGISTER password email

Example: /msg NickServ REGISTER mypassword you@validemail.com

Note: the email address must be a valid email address you can use, and password must be a valid password (i.e. it cannot be your nickname or less than 5 characters long).

4. After issuing that command, an email will be dispatched with a confirmation code to your email address from service@rizon.net. Copy and paste the codes within 24 hours from your email address you just registered to complete the registration process; otherwise the nick will be available for others to register:

Code: /msg nickserv confirm confirmationCode

5. Identify your nick since many chat channels require it for security reasons.

Use the following syntax at the command line:

Code: /msg NickServ IDENTIFY password

6. Join a chat channel (syntax to do such is: /join #Channel). Below are a few well known channels:

IRC channels on irc.rizon.net

• eUSA Chat - #usa-chat
• Congress - #congress
• Department of Education - #education
• New Player Mentors - #Mentors
• Wiki - #wiki

If you don't know how to use irc you may do the following:

1. Click on the following link: US-Chat
2. When it prompts you for a nickname, type in your eRepublik Name.
3. You will be connected to the IRC room, just ask any question you have and someone will be there to respond!

Military Units

a Military unit is a group of citizens, members and leaders, that has decided to form either a private militia or be part of a national army. Joining a militia is also one of beginning missions available as a new citizen. Joining an active military unit can ensure you will succeed in the new world while helping you form new friendships with your comrades. Many, if not all, organized military units provide their members with daily food and weapon rations in exchange for communal work. Below is a list of the top national and militia units:

• [eUS Civilian Military Group]
• United States Armed Forces
• Easy Company
• [Seal Team 6]
• SFP Bear Cavalry
• United States Training Corps
• Complete listing of all [Military in USA]

Choosing a Party

If you're not a political science major, choosing a party might be hard based on only the descriptions on a party page. Deciphering between what it means to be center-right vs far-left and authoritarian vs libertarian maybe a challenge.

Economic Orientation

Also known as Left-right political spectrum is a common way of classifying political positions, political ideologies, or political parties along a one-dimensional political spectrum. "The Left" and "The Right" are usually understood to represent polar opposites for each determinant, though a particular individual or party may take a "left" stance on one matter and a "right" stance on another.

Far-Left and Far-Right

Differences between Far-Left and Far-Right:

1. Far-Left: more economic interventionism; workers' self-management; Equality of outcome; progressivism; secular government; law dictates culture; human nature and society are mostly malleable.
2. Far-Right: more laissez-faire; right to work; Equality of opportunity; conservatism; religious government; culture dictates law; human nature and society are mostly fixed.

• Far-Left - Radical
• Center-Left - Liberal
• Center - 1/2 Liberal 1/2 Conservative
• Center-Right - Conservative
• Far-Right - Reactionary

Social Orientation

A political system, is a system of politics and government. It is usually compared to the law system, economic system, cultural system, and other social systems. It is different from them, and can be generally defined on a spectrum from left to the right. However, this is a very simplified view of a much more complex system of categories involving i.e. the view on who will have the authority, the view of religious questions and the government's influence on its people and economy.

• Totalitarian: Totalitarianism (or totalitarian rule) is a concept used to describe political systems whereby a state regulates nearly every aspect of public and private life. Totalitarian regimes or movements maintain themselves in political power by means of an official all-embracing ideology and propaganda disseminated through the state-controlled mass media, a single party that controls the state, personality cults, control over the economy, regulation and restriction of free discussion and criticism, the use of mass surveillance, and widespread use of terror tactics.
• Authoritarian: Authoritarianism describes a form of government characterized by an emphasis on the authority of the state in a republic or union. It is a political system controlled by non elected rulers who usually permit some degree of individual freedom.
• Libertarian: Libertarianism is a term used by a spectrum of political philosophies which seek to promote individual liberty and seek to minimize or even abolish the state. The extent to which government may be necessary may be evaluated on ethical and/or economic grounds. "What it means to be a libertarian in a political sense is a contentious issue, especially among libertarians themselves. There is no single theory that can be reliably identified as the libertarian theory, and no single principle or set of principles on which all libertarians would agree."
• Anarchist: Anarchism is a political philosophy encompassing theories and attitudes which support the elimination of all forms of compulsory government. Specific anarchists may have additional criteria for what constitutes anarchism, and they often disagree with each other on what these criteria are. According to The Oxford Companion to Philosophy, "there is no single defining position that all anarchists hold, and those considered anarchists at best share a certain family resemblance."

Running a Business

There are many mistakes that first time business owners make that could be prevented if they knew how to run a good business.

How to Run a Successful Business

This is a guide for ins and outs of running a business.

How much is needed to start a business

The cost of creating a new company is 20 GOLD. I would not suggest anyone to create a company once they have 20 GOLD. After creating your company you would need to hire employees and pay your expenses to start your business. I would suggest you go around in the market and search for companies that are on sale. You can find companies on sale for as low as 14 GOLD, that is lower then creating one. Use the rest 6 GOLD to buy yourself money to pay your expenses. Make sure you do some research on the companies you do want to purchase, sometimes the companies could worth nothing, depending on the productivity level. If the productivity is medium or no productivity you want to stay away from these companies. In case you don't find any descent companies to purchase, use 20 GOLD and create your own company make sure you have enough money to start the business. If you do not have an Organization you would need to make sure you have enough money to run a stable company since you will not have any alternative ways of making money until your company makes you enough profit.

How to chose the company?

By the time you collect enough gold and money to buy/create a company you should be very well experienced in your current job. For those who will have their company set up in an Organization, it is recommended to create a company in the same industry as you have an experience in. This is to guarantee production even if you hire only your own citizen account. On all other instances you may chose the company you like the most or you may do some research and see what the need is for today.

Which companies to buy/create

Many of the companies use raw materials such as grain, wood, iron, oil and diamonds. Others are to make the raw materials. For a starter in the business it is hard to decide which company to buy/create, a Raw Material, Manufacturing or Construction companies. Manufacturing companies require grain, diamonds, iron, or oil as their RM and are optimal with 10 employees. Construction companies require wood and are optimal with 20 employees. Manufactured products take 1,2,5, or 10 production points to make a product, while constructed products need 200 or 2000 points to make a product. As such, manufacturing is easier to enter than construction because there are fewer employees to pay and products are finished quicker. Construction Company has a decent barrier to entry because of the 20 employee max productivity and you have to front the cost of the house/hospital/DS until it sells. Raw Material Companies are much simpler to manage and calculate break-even product price, but they require a lot of initial capital to make a profit because of the productivity scaling with quality levels. Q3 is roughly the level where it becomes profitable (50+20+20= 90 GOLD). Since it could be very arguable as to which one to chose for a starter in the business, it is your choice to choose whichever one you want. Either way you would need to make sure you have enough funds to cover all the initial expenses and managing expenses before you start making profit.

Hiring employees

Since it is very hard find dedicated employees first you would need to look into your friends list and see if there is anyone you can hire with an affordable wage. If you do not have friends who want to work for you, then you would need to hire others. It is always recommended to hire well experienced employees, however you do not need to do this right away. You may add a job offer to hire beginners with 0 experience in the field. In order for you to decide how much salary you need to post, you would need to go to the human resources to find out what the average salary is now. Now that you know the average salary you need to start hiring. Hire at least as many employees as you have max productivity shown in your company employees section. Once you have hired the employees you need to keep an eye on them to make sure they work every day. If you see that an employee doesn't work for more then 3 days you may fire them and get yourself new employees. Non working employees do more harm then help to your company. But before you go on and fire your current employees you want to make sure you hire new ones first. Non working employees are not completely useless they will increase the efficiency of your active workers. Fire the non working employees after you hire new ones. Another thing to keep on checking is the wellness of your employees. Wellness is a main factor in the productivity, therefore, you will need to make sure your employees are well enough to work.

How to keep your employees from quitting

The best way of insuring steady productivity from your employees is to make sure you keep them happy at all times. The first thing an employee does is to make sure he gets paid a decent salary. In order to make sure you are paying your employees adequately, you need to go to the human resources and see what the average pay for the given skill levels are. Let's assume you have an oil company. Once you go to the human resources you will have to chose the specific industry you are trying to view. In the products section select land, in the skill level select all, and in the market chose the US. From here you will be able to identify how much any skill level is getting paid. As your employees progress in skills, you will need to make sure to give them a raise in a timely manner. Always keep funds available to pay your employees. In case you will be short of funds for a day notify your employees that you will take care of the issue ASAP.

Selling your products

You will not make a profit from the first day, it takes time, dedication and expenses to achieve your goals. In due time you will begin making a profit, make sure you save up as much as possible. One of the important things is getting higher Q in your production. To get higher Q you would need to have more gold. Once you have higher Q your products will have more value, more value means more profit. Try to get your company to at least Q3 before you progress in creating another company.

Getting Market License

Getting a market license could bring you more profit only if you have enough production. Sometimes it's good to be selling within your eCountry while other times if the demand is low in your eCountry you should try to sell it in another eCountry. Since any currency can be traded with gold you should not have any problems of making other currency and trading it for gold.

Pricing Products

How should I price my item? (Construction/Manufacturing Company Owners)

As a Q1 company, it is hard to decide how you want to price your items. The general idea is to assume all of your employees work every day. Get a rough estimate of what they each produce and how much Raw Materials (henceforth referred to as RM) they use each day to make whatever you produce. Then figure out how many they produce per diem and calculate the cost yourself so that you make a profit (obviously do not gauge the consumer but you can't just break even every day).

As a Q2 company owner you are going to need more materials and are going to probably be paying your employees more. This should work out roughly, to double what a Q1 company is charging. Obviously, if you can sell for a little less than do so, but you should do your best to keep your prices roughly twice the Q1 companies.

As a Q3 company owner you are going to need thrice the amount of materials as Q1 company owners and will need high skilled employees who they will be paying higher salaries. In your case, selling products for slightly more than three times a Q1 is acceptable.

How should I price my items? (Raw Materials Owners)

For all Q owners, this is both harder and easier to price out, therefore, it is broke down into separate categories.

Owners in High Productivity Regions
You guys are the smartest of all. You had the foresight to start your company or buy a pre-existing company in a High Productivity region. This boosts your productivity multiplier and allows you to make more money. So between how good your employees are and the high productivity multiplier you should be well off. The difficulty is in trying to figure out a good price to make profit on while offering competitive prices. This you'll have to do by analyzing the marketplace and smartly paying your employees. Owners in High Productivity Regions are lucky, you don't have to deal with low import taxes and foreign competition.

Owners in Medium Productivity Regions
You aren't as smart as the guys in High Productivity Regions but don't worry, what you will probably be facing foreign competition as well as limited domestic competition. You guys have it harder and therefore will have to work harder. I commend all of you for trying, and if so, succeeding.

The trick for you guys is to read articles that explain the benefits of upgrading quality. I remember reading a series published by denversbest02 (Congressman from Colorado) about how if you are in a Medium Region, and you upgrade your Quality level, not only will you make a greater deal of profit but it will negate the multiplier that the region applies.

Pricing Products in General (the same scale applies here as it did in the first section)

• Q1 is dependent upon costs (in your case only the pay of the employees)
• Q2 should be double Q1
• Q3 should be triple Q1
• etc.

Productivity

People often wonder where and what type of a company to create/purchase. When creating a raw materials company, you should create or buy one that is located in a high productivity region. It is very important to remember when you create or buy a company, it's location cannot be changed. You would need to reside in the preferred location before creating the company. The company you purchase will stay in the same region where it was created. The US has high productivity regions for all resources except for diamonds and iron, but we do have medium productivity regions for those resources. Any state not listed under that resource is a low productivity, and these companies will struggle to compete.

Diamonds

Medium (recommended)

• Arkansas

Grain

High (recommended)

• California
• Kansas
• Montana
• North Dakota
• South Dakota
• Washington

Medium

• Arkansas
• Colorado
• Delaware
• Florida
• Georgia
• Idaho
• Indiana
• Kentucky
• Maryland
• Michigan
• Minnesota
• Mississippi
• Missouri
• Nebraska
• New Mexico
• North Carolina
• Oklahoma
• Oregon
• Pennsylvania
• South Carolina
• Tennessee
• Texas
• Virginia
• Wyoming

Iron

Medium (recommended)

• Arizona
• Nevada
• New Jersey
• Utah

Oil

High (recommended)

• Alaska
• California
• Illinois
• Louisiana
• Oklahoma
• Texas

Wood

High (recommended)

• Pennsylvania
• Tennessee

Medium

• Alabama
• Arkansas
• Connecticut
• Indiana
• Iowa
• Kentucky
• Louisiana
• Maine
• Maryland
• Massachusetts
• Michigan
• Minnesota
• Mississippi
• Missouri
• New Hampshire
• New York
• North Carolina
• Ohio
• South Carolina
• Vermont
• Virginia
• West Virginia
• Wisconsin

Congress

So.. you want to run for Congress, eh? Got ambitions of helping to shape our nation? Well Congress is the perfect way to express that opinion. That’s why, the Department of Education is issuing this guide to help you in your run for Congress.

First off, though, you should run for the right reasons. Those who run for the wrong reasons more often then not end up being ineffective legislators. If you are running for the following reasons, I suggest you reevaluate why you are running.

• You just want the 5 GOLD bonus.
• You just want to pad your resume.
• You have no idea what the issues are effecting the eUS.

If any of these things apply to you, you should seriously reconsider running for Congress. There have been many people in the past who have run for the Gold and had no idea what the problems were that are effecting our country. They would haphazardly propose ridiculous proposals that would swiftly be voted down because they had not discussed that issue with Congress. Or, one would run for Congress then realize they cannot go overseas without resigning their office. There is the National Guard 1st division for those Congressmen who want to be a part of the military. But, if being part of the Marines is more important that you than being a part of Congress, don’t run.

Running for Congress

If you are not a big name, or are not a member of a big party, running in a smaller state is probably best. I don’t care if you live in a state like Florida in real life and feel passionate about running there - this isn’t real life and to be frank, regional politics do not matter in eRepublik. The only reason regional politics matter is in terms of Defense System and Hospital placement and even then Congress has a list of where the next DS or hospital is going, so, in all honestly, its best not to make a promise for placing a Q5 Defense system in Kansas - its not going to happen. Instead, find a state with a low population that has lesser known names running. If you don’t know whether a person is a big shot or not, PM your party president. (It should also be noted that even if a big name is running, there still maybe a slight chance of you winning due to party line voting. See the case of Florida last month. Justinious lost to Dountdude due to an inflated population due to the war and party line voting. This case, though, is an exception, not the rule.) Your party president can give you suggestions on where to run. Once you figure out a state to run in, go to your party page and click on the run for Congress button. You’ll be able to select the state you want to run in from the 16th to the 23rd of each month. Once you select your state, its time to develop your platform.

(It should also be noted that if you are a member of a party that is not in the Top-5 parties, your name will not appear on the ballot come election day. You will be able to put your name up for Congress on your party page but come elections, you will not be on the ballot. If you are a member of a 6th party and want to run for Congress, please contact your Party President. They will be able to ask other Party Presidents from different parties to allow you to run under their ticket. Once elected, you are able to switch back to your original party.)

So, now that you figured out what state to run in, its time to develop your platform. Your platform is the main way you will be able to communicate your ideas to the voters in your state. Make sure your platform addresses key issues affecting our country such as the economy (inflation and the value of the dollar vs gold), helping business and workers, imports vs exports, Value Added Taxes, Import taxes, and income taxes, Mutual Protection Pacts with other countries, and your opinion on war. This is not an all inclusive list but main topics that should be involved in your platform. Do not, I repeat, do not promise a Defense system or Hospital for your state. Like I mentioned before, there is a set strategic list of where DS and Hospitals will be placed and this will not change no matter how hard you campaign. Once you have your platform developed, link it to your candidate page. It is important that you do this because when voters go to place their vote, they can read each platform before clicking the vote button. This step is imperative!

Also, make sure to post your platform on your newspaper. This is a good way to make the public aware that you are running and get a positive vibe for your campaign. If others see your platform, even if they don’t live in your state, they’ll tell others you’re running a good campaign which will get more people to vote for you in end. Also, by posting your platform in your newspaper, you are more likely to get the endorsement of the Independent Congressional Recommendations Panel run by Angrr. This panel evaluates every race in each state and recommends the best candidate from each state. If you want to get this recommendation, you’re going to need a strong platform that is visible to the public.

Now, the most important, but tedious part of campaigning is PMing your potential voters. This can be a pain, but necessary to let your voters know you really care about their needs. In order to get a list of voters from your state, go to the info tab>rankings>USA> then your state. From there, PM every voter who is level 6 or above or that looks active and will be level 6 or above by election day. Mention that you are running, give a link to your platform and tell them send a PM back if they have any questions. That way, you a being personable and sending your message to the entire state. This is, by far, the best way you’ll win votes on election day.

The day before elections, your party president will finalize the list of candidates. Don’t worry, you should make it on the ballot unless someone else from your party is running in that state. Be sure to discuss your situation with your party president before the 24th of the month if this is the case for you. If not, its time to put in a last ditch effort to get votes. Put our a short article in your newspaper reminding people to vote on the 25th and put a link to your platform in your article. Make it short, but sweet. Just get your message across. Also, I’d recommend putting out a few shouts to friends to remind them to vote.

Now, on the day of elections, go and vote. When you get to the voter page, you’ll notice that candidates are separated by party. Click on your party and then you should see your name. From there, you can vote. Once voted, you’ll see the vote count in your state thus far. If you are not in first place, you’ll see your name under the “unqualified” list. This does not mean your are unqualified for office. It just means that, as of this time, you do not meet the qualifications to get elected to office (i.e. you don’t have the most votes). If in the event of a tie, the person with the most experience points will be declared the winner. Therefore, if throughout the day there is a tie, the qualified candidate will be the person with the most XP. Keep this in mind when choosing a state. In small states, the XP factor might be the deciding factor in a election.

Tips for Congressman

Tip 1: Know the lingo. Make sure you become familiar with common terms such as MPP, DS, or special programs connected to your term such as the Emergency Tax Package. A Mutual Protection Pact, or MPP, is essentially an alliance with another country. If they are attacked, we are allowed to participate in a war they are involved in without moving. So, if Iran attacked Spain and we had a MPP with them, we'd be able to send out troops to attack from Florida. A Defense System, or DS for short (not to be confused with the video game system), is a product purchased by the government to increase the defense of a region. The higher quality ones are usually purchased for border regions. The higher the quality of a defense system, the bigger the wall a region has when its attacked. The Emergency Tax Package is a series of reforms Congress is trying to pass in response to Franco stealing all the money from the Federal Reserve Org account. This will raise taxes on all goods significantly until enough money is raised to make up for the money stolen. Whether you agree with this measure or not, as a Congressman, it is your responsibility to know the rationale behind the measure in order to give good reasons as to whether you will vote for the package or not.

Tip 2: Know not only the needs of your region, but the needs of the entire country. Sure, you were elected to represent Kansas, but, as I said in the Guide on getting elected to Congress, there is really no such thing as regional politics in eRepublik. You need to think with your head, not your heart. Sure, you can respond to constituent needs, but, you just are not going to get that Q5 DS in Kansas. There's a list to where each hospital and defense system is going next and you're going to have a really rough time trying to get Congress to deviate from this list.

Tip 3: Register for the eUS forums and if possible, get involved with #usa-chat and #congress. Being active on the eUS forums is essential to being a successful Congressman. The forums are where proposals are debated before they are proposed on eRepublik. To get a proposal passed, you need to make a topic stating your proposal and the rationale behind it. Once it gathers 5 approvals, you can go ahead and propose it on the eRepublik site. Your proposal will get voted down on principle if it is not debated on the forums first even if its a good proposal. Remember, you only have 2 proposals per term. Follow procedure or you will lose them needlessly when your silly proposal that wasn't debated is voted down.

As for #Congress, it is not essential for you to be active on IRC, but it helps. There have been many successful Congressman, such as Scrabman from WV, who are not active on IRC. But, sometimes in the case of an emergency, such as when the forums were taken down by Franco, certain proposals are discussed on IRC. Be aware of this when you choose to participate or not participate. Link to the Forums Guide to IRC

Tip 4: Know about taxes and the rules behind taxes. There are three different types of taxes.

The first is an import tax. This is a tax on all goods coming into the nation from other countries.

The second is an income tax. This is a tax where money is deducted from when a GM collects money from a company's account. This is also a tax deducted from each worker's wage. So, for example, if a worker earns 10 dollars a day working at a Food company and the income tax on the food industry is 10%, he'll only take home 9 dollars that day after he works.

The third is a Value Added Tax. A VAT increases the price of a product on the market by a certain percent. That money goes directly to a country's account. For example, if the price of a Q1 food is 1 dollar at the VAT is 5%, the price of the product on the market will be a 1.05 to the consumer. When sold, the GM takes home 1 dollar and the government taxes home .05 cents.

Understanding these different taxes is essential to being an effective Congressperson.

Tip 5: Do not propose to increase Minimum Wage. Every term we have a newbie populist Congressman who thinks its a smart idea to raise minimum wage. It isn't. Minimum wage is the way it is for a reason. With the new citizen fee, new players will have enough money to buy food until they reach skill level 1 after 2 days and be able to afford more goods. Raising minimum wage only puts more dollars into the economy which will not be used as most new players quit after a day or two. This only raises inflation which is not helpful for the economy. So, don't waste your proposal on raising minimum wage. There's only a very slim chance it'll pass.

Tip 6: Treat impeachment as you would in the Real Life United States. Impeachment is for high crimes. Impeachment is not a way to show your disapproval for the President. So, the President has ruined the economy or brought us into a unjustified war. You don't agree with him. Impeachment is not the way to show your anger. If you disapprove of him, he's only in office for one month, which is honestly a really short amount of time. If you don't like him, he's probably not going to get elected next term so just wait it out. If he's stolen money from the Federal Reserve or becomes inactive, that's another story. Those cases justify impeachment. Don't waste your proposal unless the President steals, is a multi, or does something truly out there. Remember, it takes 2/3 of Congress to impeach a President. Keep that in mind.

Tip 7: Get involved with a committee. The new Speaker of the House, ProggyPop, has been trying to create committees you can get involved with. This has not reached final approval, but should be passed sometime in the near future. If you're interested in Defense System and Hospital placement, ask to get involved with the Infrastructure committee. If you have a policy area which you are particularly interested in, this a great way to make an impact in Congress.

Tip 8: Subscribe to the Congressional Newspaper. This newspaper will keep you informed on many major events happening in Congress. A link to the newspaper can be found here.

Tip 9: Keep your constituents informed- Make your voting record public. It is important to keep your constituents informed of your voting record. As such, it would be helpful to publish your voting record on your newspaper. As a Congresswoman, I published my record on my newspaper once a week. In addition to publishing your record on your newspaper, it is also important that you inform Congress of your vote. Do this by reporting it on the threads on the eUS forums. Also, Speaker ProggyPop has recently implemented a new way of reporting voting records via a Google Documents system. For more information on this system, contact Speaker ProggyPop

Tip 10: Don't be an ass. Decorum is important to a successful Congressional session. Remember the Golden Rule in all Congressional debates- treat others the way you'd like to be treated. We all have feelings and we sometimes feel extremely passionate about a certain issue. Even if you completely disagree with someone's proposal, be nice when disagreeing with them. Remember, this is just a game.

Tip 11: Multipartisanship. Multipartisanship goes a long way when getting things done that are productive for our country. Sure, you maybe vehemently against higher taxes, but, look at it in the long term rather then the short term. Sometimes, you need to make sacrifices in order to make a difference. This goes along with tip #10. Sometimes, compromise is the way to go. Think wisely over each proposal and don't be a hard liner unless absolutely necessary.

Using Google Documents with eRepublik

The use of Google Documents within eRepublik is essential to optimizing your game experience. Whether you want to fill out a form when applying for a cabinet position, are requesting supplies from the QMG to fight in a war, or if you are a Congressman and want to ask constituents about their ideas on what they want you to accomplish in office. Google Documents can also help you campaign better. You can host your campaign material as web page and link it to your presentation page on eRepublik when running for Congress. You can also host a campaign PowerPoint and share it with the world.

Even though eRepublik doesn’t officially integrate Google Documents within their website, even the admins use Google Documents to effectively communicate changes within the game. In short, since eRepublik is a game of communication, Google Documents will help you communicate better with the entire New World.

Here is a written step by step directions on how to use Google Documents effectively by Tiacha. This includes how to upload documents, share them, use the interface, as well as the all important, creating forms option which is heavily used with eRepublik. This handout gives you general directions on how to use Google Documents which can be easily integrated with your communications in eRepublik. Remember, though, you need a Gmail account to use Google Documents. Once you have that set up, you’re ready to go.