u/The_RetroGameDude

Spring 2000 NASDAQ falls from grace as people start pulling money rapidly from startups. Following the peak March 10 2000 investors started rapidly pulling. With a lack of preventative economic action the world enters a recession for 2001.

All country's economies are affected this year with a slight decrease than usual. USA is highest affected. Others are affected at different rates.

12:00 AM, January 1st, 2000.

The millennium has ended. To some this is a time for a carousal. For others it is a time for weeping for the lost age. But to all it is the cessation of an era of humankind.

Most are is chiliastic, for life has not ever been of such technological advancement and halcyon. Others are more cautious, for there are still lands of tyranny and oppression that have not been able to taste the fruit of the new era. The dreaded Y2K computer bug proved to not be of much significance in the end and the world feels a bit older - for it is. Economists warn of the supposed 'Dot Com Bubble' --- investors are investing purely on startups using the internet rather than their quality, causing a rapid unsustainable economic boom that the US government is trying to control with higher interest.

Geopolitically the world is in a more peaceful state than usual, but that is not to say war is not raging. Ethiopia and Eritrea are at war. The Second Congo War continues to be Africa's version of a world war. A second Intifada is brewing in Israel occupied territories. Russia's Chechen territories continue to be unstable with Boris Yeltsin's troops entering into Grozhny. Angola and Sierra Leone continue their grueling civil wars. And Sri Lanka continues to rage on in the fight between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government.

Yet despite all the war tensions are low. The calm after the fall of the USSR continues as China-US relations are at a high. Russia while distancing itself from NATO following the Kosovo War is still not antagonistic towards them. The USA continues to grow under Bill Clinton, and the World Trade Center towers continue to be a symbol of American economic growth.

Is the world going to continue on its path to growth? Or will it fail?

You get to change its fate.

Welcome to Season 1 of NRP that Exists.

NRP Rules

1. Be respectful

You can mention things such as racism in the context of the NRP, but do not do it in detail; any real-world discrimination is not allowed, especially towards other players.

2. NRP Rules: Actions

5 actions maximum are allowed. Actions must be detailed to an extent, otherwise they may have a lesser effect; for instance: 'I land in Normandy' will not get much results, your push will be less sucessful. 'I make naval landings on Le Havre and Cherbourg, perform an encirclement, and use [warfare tactic] and a trench to break supply lines' will be much more successful. Actions can be as broad as you like within reason (upto mods).

3. NRP rules: Common Sense

Be sensible for the time period. You're not going to be making LLMs for at least 5 to 6 years even with heavy government funding.

4. NRP rules: Random Events

Random events can occur at times. Countries may discover new natural resources or have insurgencies. These are all RNG. Both NPC and Player countries can have random events.

5. NRP rules: Submissions

Top level comments on actions posts MUST be actions. Otherwise they will be removed. Complaints should be submitted to moderators. Posts can be whatever as long as they are somewhat related to the community. Every week Saturday is a 'free day' where shitposting is allowed.

6. NRP rules: Diplomacy

For player countries you must talk to the players directly. Moderators cannot be mediaries for this. For non-player countries, diplomacy will be done by the moderators themselves.

7. NRP rules: Rebel Players

Rebellions can only occur by random chance. Players may seize this opportunity to join as these rebel countries.

8. NRP rules: Secret Actions and Alternate Accounts

Secret actions can be submitted to mods to prevent other players from acting on them. Alternate accounts are BANNED and any alting will lead to a perma-ban from the subreddit and the NRP. The only excuse is if your main account is banned, in which case you MUST play as the same country as the banned account and make it clear that you are alting.

9. NRP rules: Claims

1 player per country.

10. Have fun

Have fun! If I get too 1984 then the backup mod will remove me and take over.

.....

Sign-ups are open!

Okay, so this is going to be a long rant about why I hate it when people call or act like the USA is a third world country. Note that I was born in an ACTUAL third world country (India) and now live in the United States so I believe I can speak on this subject.

Firstly, no it isn't. Stop coping. You don't have open sewers. You don't have one SA case every SIX MINUTES. You don't have crumbling infrastructure. You don't have trash piled up on the side of the road (except in the hood but they have bits of litter on the road, not a whole ass gigantic heap that can be seen from multiple miles in a protected marshland with many species of animals!).

Secondly, lemme just say some stuff about the other arguments that people say.

School shootings - average American school kid never sees one his life. They're horrible, but again, the closest most people get to it in their lives is with drills. Besides they're a lot rarer nowadays thanks to better security systems. But, I will not try to say they aren't a problem to be fixed. Yet they're still not as bad as actual third-world countries like Mexico (you heard of funkytown?) and India (statistic above).

Crime overall - while yes, the USA has more crime per capita than Canada, it's still safer than most third-world countries as long as you know where the fuck you're going and use basic safety precautions, compared to Mexico where you get kidnapped even in the capital. Oh, and I'm sorry for putting shade on Mexico, they have great food and they're a good people, but they're plagued by crime. Pretty much the entire Americas except for small Caribbean nations and Canada (whose crime is ever increasing) have more crime than the USA.

Supposed lack of freedom - Despite democratic backsliding the USA is still a democracy. Next election cycle this will 180, yet people seem to think that this is the normal USA when it's a country of immigrants and will be even despite hiccups in it.

Racism - a problem but people seem to think it's like Sudan levels. Nope. Compared to what I felt in my 5 years in Malaysia (I was rejected from my dream school because I was not a Malay for example) this is nothing, and it's not increasing, it's decreasing, once hyper-racist states like Georgia (my home state) and North Carolina now barely have any Dixies beside rural areas. The problem is going away, and while I do feel it still needs fixing, it's not nearly as bad as people make it out to be.

Income inequality - this is a problem, I'm not going to deny it, but pretty much the entire country is taking a step in the right direction to fix it. Besides, it's much better than in most third world countries, even though the gap itself is bigger the quality of life difference is not. The average poor person in the USA still lives a much, MUCH better life than the average poor person in Brazil or India. I think again, this is a problem to be fixed, but it is much less of a factor than people think it is.

Healthcare - insurance. Of course they try to deny coverage but states like Georgia are expanding medicaid and our senator (da goat Jon Osoff (yes I'm biased)) is trying to force them to accept coverage, which would fix the problem, it'd essentially just turn into an outsourced tax system at that point. I know other states may not have similar campaigns but the country is moving in the right direction and insurance doesn't deny coverage most of the time anyway, it's just that only the times when they do deny it are actually sensationalized, giving off the illusion that they're doing it to everyone because 'insurance company denies coverage for heart attack patient' is a much more notable headline than 'insurance company accepts coverage for heart attack patient'.

Anyway, thanks for listening to my rant. If you want to debunk my arguments feel free to do so as long as you don't go too Redditor on it (as in refrain from ragebait). I'm ok if you respectfully try to debunk my arguments though.

The Netherlands and the Kingdom of Persia have agreed to the construction of a Legation for the Netherlands in the city of Tehran.

Following anonymous intelligence stating Prussia plans to invade us we have decided to declare war on them in return.

Mijn Nederlanders, mijn landgenoten,

Kom naar buiten, kom naar buiten!

Laten we in Wallonië strijden

Voor het prachtige Edingen!

Mijn vrienden, laten we marcheren

In Antwerpen en Gent.

Laat Brugge opnieuw deel uitmaken

Van het vaderland!

Laten we strijden voor de

Eerlijke kusten van Rotterdam,

Laten we strijden met de herinnering

Aan Batavia in gedachten.

Laat de Prins van Oranje,

Laat zijn naam bekend zijn.

Laat die naam opnieuw, opnieuw in België

Met grote roem weerklinken.

Hoera! Hoera! Voor Nederland, hoera!

Hoera! Hoera, voor Wallonië, hoera!

Laat de zeeën het rijk van Nederland zijn;

Glorie, glorie, glorie!

Vaarwel aan de oorlog,

Hallo tegen de vrede,

Want de val van Wallonië is nabij.

Glorie, glorie, glorie, nog een keer.

Eer aan de Oranje-kroon,

Eer aan de mannen die voor hun vaderland strijden.

Land van de vrijheid, thuis van de dapperen,

Stijg op boven de hemel!

....