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This is the second in a series of five short articles about the role of government in eRepublik. Please subscribe to this publication so you are notified when the next section is released. If you don't like reading short articles, the entire series will be released in a single compilation after the last article has been released.

Part 1 - Introduction

Part 2 - The General Welfare
A solid definition of this term is crucial to solving many of the policy issues eRepublik congressman face every day. Some sort of base is required to help clarify the fairest way in which a government can promote the general welfare of all citizens.

The word "general" means to apply to the whole (as opposed to applying to one particular group), so with this in mind, the General Welfare can be defined as acts that help citizens without harm or discrimination against any others.

What then are the consequences of this definition for good governance in eRepublik?

It could be argued that this means government should never tax it's citizens. After all, taxation forces citizens to donate money to the government treasury and taking a citizen's property by force is a form of harm, isn't it?

While eRepublik does allows for no taxation (setting taxation levels to 0😵, there are factors in The New World that can prevent this ideal from becoming a reality.

For instance, the prospect of military take over by another republik is a very real threat, and governments are wise to maintain a well-organised military to safeguard its regions.

A prudent government could probably still fund military efforts without domestic taxation. The import tax could be raised to a point which contributed funds to government coffers, but wasn't so high as to discourage foreign investment. This would conform to our General Welfare definition as no local citizens would be discriminated against. And along with donations by private citizens and organisations, some military activity could be funded.

In practice however, the needs of a military and indeed other projects such as hospitals, defense systems and agreements with other republiks require funds to be raised through direct taxation of citizens.

But how can we reconcile these two conflicting viewpoints?

On one hand, forcing citizens to contribute money via taxation is a clear violation of our definition of the General Welfare, but on the other, funds are required for projects that will keep these same citizens safe and secure.

This question will be answered in part three of this series.

Next

The third article in this series will investigate the elements that make up fair congressional proposals.