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45031

DAY 654

London - Two weeks after the worldwide peak in baby boom activity, it is becoming more clear that the population surges have considerably slowed, and economies have regained stability-- for now. Secura’s administrators are keen on promoting new membership in the server, but since the fundraising for Taiwan’s baby boom, Taiwan’s population shrunk by one seventh of its previous size. Over the course of the last few weeks, Taiwan had not experienced any baby boom, with growths reaching a maximum of 7% at the worldwide boom’s peak.



Taiwan as a choice for Admin’s baby boom fundraising is a little puzzling to say the least, considering it has the world’s third-strongest economy by productivity and has seen very stable growth in those sectors while the rest of the world, however, was not as lucky. Although the other four countries tracked by the Austrian Perspective are only starting to reach per person productivity numbers equivalent to their base Day 636 levels, the Taiwanese economy remained very steady, never distancing itself too far from the initial levels. Today it rests at 27% above the Day 636 index.

What are the actual side-effects of the per person productivity index? To some it may appear as a hollow statistic, meaning nothing in the real world, but the PPP index is a valuable economic, social, and military indicator. With it, we can accurately track the starts and ends of baby booms, as well as measure how far a country has come since a certain point in time. More subtly, we can also work out how many people are actually active in a country, and which are ghosts soon to be inactivated. For the United Kingdom, this figure rests at around 260 citizens, while in Taiwan it’s at around 1,470, and Poland 1,400, give or take 50. Poland still ranks first in the world for population, however, as it continually shows to have the largest population growth in absolute, and not relative, terms.

The UK’s population had fallen substantially for three days straight on from day 650 to 653. Today, it is safe to say that the country has recovered and stabilised itself from the boom, and little to no remnants of it remain. Now that the boom is over, we can finally prove our assumptions laid out in our first article on day 637.



Firstly, we should begin with positive commodity deflation. Nothing but basic knowledge in economics is required to assume the actions taken by market forces following a surge in employment: a larger labour force means individual companies can hire individual workers for less, and lower production costs mean cheaper goods. Evidently, as shown by the data, this was not a lie: prices for food, weapons, and raw materials stagnated, until reaching one fifth; one half; eight tenths and nine tenths of their pre-boom prices for grain, gifts, food and weapons respectively. One of the assumptions regarding positive commodity deflation was the rise in purchasing power that followed. As prices got lower and lower, and wages (first fell, but then) rose due to more players going inactive, the British purchasing power index for food shot up to 120%, until being shot back down to 100% when the baby boom began to see its end. On day 649 the UK saw 527 citizens, as well as an overall demand (and productivity) being lowered as more people left the game. Less labour meant employees had to spend more employing new workers, which resulted in higher prices, which brought the purchasing power back down again. Although we can only anticipate further data for the moment, the Austrian Perspective expects positive commodity deflation to slow down, representing the effects of a terminated baby boom, to almost minimal levels.



Our second assumption was the rise of new parties promising “change”, although what is to change is a message that will always remain unclear. Due to the nation’s small population, we did not see as much growth as we, ex-players of eRepublik, had anticipated. In any case, we were not wrong. The Democratic Alliance, founded by Harold Proctor (b. 643), is the party that fits the exact definition of the one we had in mind, even prior to its own foundation. The Democratic Alliance promises this “change” in the political landscape of the United Kingdom, and expresses advocacy for politics that aid the worker, and not the landed elite-- who the workers are (effectively, in a game like e-sim, that’s all of us), and who the landed elite are (those in power?), are variables that have not yet been specified. Moving on, however, the Austrian Perspective was also right in its assumption of rapid growth in such a party. Clearly, this has shown to be true: today, the DA counts 8 members, making it the joint-fourth largest party in the UK-- a party whose membership had quadrupled easily in just a matter of days is either set to find ground on the next, larger level, or dwindle into the forgotten abyss of dead parties.

One way to explain such a rapid growth in one single party in such a short amount of time is the growing distance between players and their government. Keeping in mind that we have a population of at least 260 players, and that at the time of the presidential elections for KizMit’s second term (day 649) we had a population of 527, turnout was only 19% of overall players, and 38% of active players. Seeing as the new players, who wish to institute their own model of “change” at an executive level, did not have a platform from which to promulgate such visionary ideas, they had to band together to form a party. The Democratic Alliance is just that, and considering its success even after the official end of the last baby boom, we project that the party will soon gain larger amounts of importance, and have its own name on a ballot paper come the July elections.

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I would personally like to take this part of the article to attend some concerns raised from the public newsfeed. Firstly, I would like to remind the government that there has been even more overwhelming evidence for the damage caused by the MoF price floor, where when it was lifted productivity grew to a new stable high. If any “new”, considering this would be the previous CP’s second term, members of the government wish to tackle me on that one again, they are very welcome to send me a personal message.

Secondly, I would like to address the implicit comments received from James Hacker’s Aggregate Reform, where (presumably) we are considered to be the economic-right side of the argument on taxation. He assumes that we take an extreme view on taxation, rooting for its outright removal. Although we would obviously prefer this to raising taxes to 99% all over the place, I would like to remind my readers of the Laffer curve, which also applies to in-game economics. The Laffer curve says, briefly put, that cutting taxes up to a certain point will raise revenue. It’s rather simple to come up with: when you set an import tax of 99% on grain, no foreign producer will sell here. If taxes were lowered down to, say, 5%, foreign investors would be very keen on selling here, and tax revenue would take a jump as more sales means more VAT income. The Ministry of Finance should, and would if it was to take the Austrian Perspective’s advice, come to reach a consensus on the optimal tax rate, where they must not stay in their own shoes, but also step into the shoes of the producers: if you were a producer, would such a tax rate be lucrative enough to tempt you to sell there? In comparison to our neighbours, this newspaper recommends a rate near, or below, the 10% mark.

Thirdly, I would like to make two personal advertisements. Number one, I will be running for Party President of “Phoenix of UK”, in an attempt to steer the dead party into a new direction. Number two, I’d like to shed light on the success of the First Cooperative Investment Bank, of which I am the Accountant. Through the rapid growth in value, I have personally made a 10g profit in selling around 15 shares. The price did crash soon after due to it being overvalued for too long, but I expect the share price to skyrocket anytime soon, so I recommend buying as much as possible of it. Dividends are also set to grow, which is one more incentive to buy FCIB shares.

Lastly, the Austrian Perspective will begin sending links to Google Drive Surveys, and act as a national pollster. Questions will include opinions on the current government, attitudes towards the international relationships of the United Kingdom, spending behaviours, activity behaviours, but will remain entirely anonymous. With this new data, we will be able to publish articles that describe the advancements of the United Kingdom on both an economic scale, which we do today, and a sociopolitical scale, which surveys will allow us to do.

Thank you, please do vote and subscribe. Or comment your disapproval, whatever.

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