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As my term as president of the USA winds down I figure I should sum up what's happened and my thoughts in a final article.

The USA has greatly recovered from the Lithuanian occupation. Weeks before taking office, the disbanding of VVV and polish invasion caused Lithuania to lose its colonies and the USA to free itself. The biggest point in my campaign - that I would free the country no matter what - was solved for me. Instead, many more minor issues fell into my lap:

- USD and inflation
- taxes
- "communes"
- issues with strikes
- potential expansion
- foreign policy
- alliance/neutrality policy

Overall, I chose to largely ignore communes and avoid pegging usd, had taxes handled brilliant by Crash Override , reinvigorated strikes somewhat with eventually several good people helping to run it, expanded into mexico, made some good global friendships and eventually flipped from an initial position of wanting neutrality to a strong need for joining an alliance, and after an overly long process chose dynasty. On a personal level, I ended up hitting huge hurdles with work in real life and my time took a dramatic downturn halfway through my term. In spite of my absence the country flew by just fine without me around most of the time and prospered. I think it was fairly evident that the key to my success as cp and the country's success too was not some tangible involvement so much as a shift in attitude. I brought a confidence and aggressive personality to the office that allowed people to feel safe, secure, and motivated. The country found itself encouraged and went on to be prosperous as a result. While things like the tax changes certainly helped, the biggest change is that of attitude. I cannot take full credit for that - the USA population itself has changed from a defeated and whining bunch of shoutbox troll bait to a positive and forward-thinking team that wants the best for themselves and allies going forward.


My first action as PotUS was to immediately remove the "commune" system. This system was not a commune, it was players being handed goods by the government orgs in exchange for... being in a government military unit. To date I have not made a sincere effort to rebuild the communes but I think it should be a priority in the near future. The task will require at least one, preferably several, grain and food companies in cec and more iron companies for uspc. I personally think this simple step of shutting down the communes and changing every org password was actually the single largest specific thing I actually did as president to help the country. That whole setup was a gigantic waste of funds that was leveling the country's treasury and compounding the usd problems.

For taxes, that quickly fell into my lap. Once congress discussions were reopened and crash and molly were no longer being trashed for no reason, they quickly rose to prominence - molly to speaker and crash to tax law creator. After a lengthy back and forth discussion which included me constantly switching import and income to the confusion of all, the majority agreed to our current tax system: High income taxes, low to almost nonexistant import taxes, and a flat average vat tax. This change results in a massive gain in revenue for the government at the expense of non-commune workers from the income tax change, and a slightly cheaper and much more competitive market for buying products at the cost of a slight decrease in profits and large decrease in ability to move volume thanks to the 1% import tax. This change also seemed to help stabilize the USD a bit by favoring more market activity and exchange of supplies. The two losers in this change - workers and usa sellers - I have attempted to remedy with the strikes program. The program allows working americans to make up for lost revenue by receiving supplies paid for with that taxed usd (far in excess of the 20% lost), and when the department of defense buys supplies we favor buying from those usa sellers. In this way the active citizens can do very well by joining strikes despite the high income tax and the businesses can still move a good deal of product in our markets despite foreign competition.

When it comes to USD I have not taken a very active stance. I think the best policy for now, and probably for weeks still, is to hold onto dollars and spend far less than the country makes in taxes, until the rampant inflated money supply is recollected. The amount of money in circulation right now is befitting a usa that held many more native citizens and every high region back when jackist was president. The country still holds the biggest region for companies, USPC, but lacks the native workforce as well as many of the occupied workforce that it once held. The result is a great deal of companies and competition for a small number of workers. For this reason I have rarely sold usd directly, avoided overspending, and encourage the next cp to continue to save money up.

My last major domestic issue was strikes. I wanted players to join #strikes.usa and hit for the country. I also wanted to avoid the hassle of having players who take supplies and then hit immediately without waiting for the end of the round, or the strikes director having to hand out supplies at the last minute and be distracted at the most important times. For this reason I overhauled strikes to be a reimbursement program, where players only received supplies AFTER they had already hit! This had the added benefit of encouraging players to spend their own money. This met with mixed success. First and foremost the program was very slow to pick up and very few USA citizens log into irc and join. The other problem is that many players still avoid spending any personal money. The result is a mixed bag, where players can get less supplies up front or more if they provide their own and get some afterwards. The things I fear still take place - several players (including an outspoken congress member) joined, got up-front supplies, dumped immediately mid round, and logged off - but in general the program is making gradual progress and more people are getting involved. I think given time (a month or two) it should become bustling and truly excellent if it continues to be led well.




On the foreign front, long before even considering an alliance, I decided it was in the best interest of the country to attack someone. Our borders at that time were Russia (high occupied by Poland), China (later occupied by South Korea), Canada (Occupied by UK at that time), Spain (Delta alliance) and Mexico. The obvious choice was to go south into Mexico. My personal preference was a long troll towards Iran, but alas, we went with the smarter choice over the funny one.

The invasion of Mexico went far better than I could have possible imagined. I found out after attacking, to my shame I should have already known, that Mexico was actually part of an alliance made up of mostly occupied nations. The attack turned into a far more difficult affair when they pulled out damage from allies and hired mercs, and then turned into a huge propaganda war when their alliance leader admitted to scamming and betrayed a promise to free ireland. Eventually the USA was able to take Mexico's high diamond region and has held onto it since, while leaving the country its capital so it can function if they REALLY want to, and the war open in case they were to win a rw.

The President of Mexico at the time I attacked was either unable to communicate in English (and I don't speak spanish) or just a child who didn't really understand diplomacy. I sent messages asking to talk about rentals or negotiated peace, reparations for our withdraw, etc, and was met with nothing substantive in response. A future president (of both countries) may be able to negotiate something far more friendly than our country just sitting on theirs, but I've given up on any plan other than to just occupy them indefinitely, and I fail to see Mexico able to change that either.




I initially came to the USA directly from Delta. Despite my attempts at stirring drama, I think I left on and remain in good terms there. While I thought it may be productive to just drag the USA and its massive income into delta for alliance use, I initially set out to keep the country out of global fighting and remain neutral.

After a short term of hearing and seeing the strength of the usa compared to the value of its high region, it became very obvious that my stance was bad. The USA is not strong enough to stay neutral the way only Poland and maybe Lithuania could be and still hold its core. I decided to hold discussions then ask for opinions and after over a week the majority of usa citizens wanted dynasty. We joined what I consider the most organized alliance, even if I would have preferred a more tight-knit one in Delta, and seem to be doing very well. I think as we continue to show that we deal more for friends than we need to hold mexico, we will establish global credibility and prove ourselves a reliable asset to any team we join in the future.



With my term ending, I will most likely be moving on. I do plan to help the next President in any way I can, but I likely won't stick around with citizenship for long.

Currently I have two serious options I am considering:

#1
I want to go to Iran and fight against the cheaters...

or

#2
I could move back to Delta!

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