NCR.

While there is the sexy, dangerous frontier for those interested, by the point of New Vegas, the core is so safe you can live a normal life. Unlike every other faction, it is not just a small group fending for itself as an underdog story in the wasteland. The NCR is an actual country with infrastructure, schools, and not just basis amenities but luxuries. Even by the point of Fallout 2, we see the availability of cybernetic implants, energy doors, and a taming the wasteland already having started. Have a house, a job, and pay your taxes. It’s not even weird jobs like mutant wrangler or radioactive muck raker, normal things like clerks, secretaries, cooks, whatever and what have you. It’s the only group that affords a quality of life which is going to be recognizably close to our own to any degree.

People like to bitch about the NCR taxing folks. They forget or do not understand it’s infrastructure and investment which make countries. That’s one of the reasons why we see such disparity between folks out west living in homes, and folks out east building their ramshackle huts out of trash.

What about the economic problems in the NCR. The president himself saids that many people have to scavenge ruins to live. The farms have been suffering through droughts and farmers have to send the children they can't feed into the Military. The military is itself so large as it pays a great wage that other jobs can't match. Other than that, they are suffering from water shortages, many of their reseviors are empty and that why they started an invasion of the Mojave for water. Hanlon himself saids that grass is never as green. Basically, NCR = Desert.

Take the full context of the speech where those hardships are listed by the president: 

“It is because of men and women like Private First Class Jeremy Watson that Nevada and the New California Republic remain free and secure.”

He is establishing who the person being honored is, what they’ve done, and making sure to prop up how good the NCR is for the region.

“Born in a tin shack on the outskirts of One Pine, Jeremy Watson never had it easy. His father worked as a caravan guard on the Short Loop, and his mother, like many Californians, braved the ruins of the Old World as a prospector. They suffered through water shortages, raider attacks, and the Brotherhood War. Like our mighty Sierra Nevadas, they endured.”

This is outlining all that this one person had to overcome, highlighting how this person born into hardship, and then passes it forwards. Again, reinforcing who is being rewarded and how the NCR, as represented by this one person, is good for the Mojave. It’s why we have a dopey private receiving an award, because the story sounds good. “This is Jerald, heir apparent to the dominant Brahmin barren, whose appointment as an officer was guaranteed, and never knew a lick of sacrifice or hardship” does not have nearly the same ring to it. Especially not when compared to this lowly private whose tribal name would have been “Walks Up Hill Both Ways.” Also pay close attention to the way it says Californians, not specifically citizens.

“But the time came when they could no longer shoulder the burden alone. Twelve years ago, they called out for help, and the republic heard them.

Troopers and rangers, just like you, answered the clarion call. Men and women stepped forward to say, "I will carry the weight." And at Owen's Lake, we made true on our promise, driving out the raider tribes to establish a lasting peace in the eastern Sierra Nevadas. We carried the weight, and though we left behind many of our brothers and sisters on that battlefield, it did not break us.”

This highlights how those hardships were overcome specifically because of the NCR, not as a result of suffering due to it or the conditions of its people. And it was not a hard ship just overcome, it boasts 12 years ago, the NCR stepped up to the plate. And once again, it drives home how positive the NCR is for the Mojave, giving a parallel in the private’s story and noting the sacrifices made by the NCR for the good of others. 

It’s not a laundry list of horror stories behind the NCR’s conditions, but rather it’s telling how the NCR solves problems. How those who are the real problem solvers did not have it easy, but did it anyway thanks to an indomitable spirit and righteousness cause, etc etc.

Beyond that, economic troubles and water shortages in California? I said recognizable, not magical! If Obsidian could work those out, they should be seeking office not making games.

Since the enclave is pretty xenophobic when it comes to outsiders, unless I was born in I"d probably try to join the BOS because of their protection.

Atom Cats

The omertas and expand our area of operations to all of new Vegas and then to the Mojave and change the omertas weapons to the Thompson aka tommy gun

Maybe in the core states the NCR is good but out everywhere else, that's different. Continuously, the NCR hass been colonizing the North, South and West. They were harrasing Vault City, they exterminated tribals, all for resources. Even Hanlon knows that the NCR is doomed if they win Hoover Dam.

The degree to which any of these topics matter when the question is about which faction would you rather join is largely a non-issue. Your concession is that you believe these are issues which do not affect the core, which means these would would not be detrimental to anyone who chooses the NCR, unless they actively choose the frontier, which requires a pretty upfront decision to willingly accept hardship. It is the frontier, after all. But I’ll address these points because I do not agree with them, and I do not believe they are an accurate depiction of what is seen in the series.The NCR has certainly grown, mirroring the spirit of Manifest Destiny in many ways, but substantially different in others. Just like the game is a western, filled with science fiction, that reflection of Manifest Destiny has much more going on than being a carbon copy.

For instance, exterminating tribals is something I am not immediately familiar with. The only “tribals” who we know the NCR to have troubles with are the Legion, Caesar’s personal horde of themed raiders, and the Khans, another group of raiders. Neither of which I am the least bit upset about being wiped out. The wasteland is better for it, and the sooner those factions are dead, the better. Beyond that, we know the NCR had positive experiences with the most famous tribal, the Chosen One, who helped set them on the path to nation vs local power. And it’s just as important to ask who the NCR is competing with in terms of relations, if this is a metric of concern. In your original choice, you selected the Institute, which scores near the Enclave in terms of the moral high ground. Aside from maybe the Midwestern BoS, I do not believe there is any group of any significant size which is as tolerant as the NCR, and even with the MWBoS there is a considerable amount of baggage attached.

We certainly see the NCR going out of the way to annex territory and make joining more attractive than the alternative. Colonizing would be the wrong word, though. The expansion seen with the NCR is not like colonialism or filled with stories where a local population is exploited or forced into labor. What we see with the NCR, especially early on, is much closer to the shifting boarders and conquests of European history, not American history. Flags flown may change, but critically regions are incorporated, not enslaved. What we see in NV, thanks to the ending slides, are regions which may experience chafing but ultimately prosper.

What we see in the Mojave during the events of the game, what Hanlon discusses, is how the ongoing war against the Legion is a meat grinder for the NCR. How he believes the NCR must cut its losses.That point, however, runs entirely against the notion of the NCR being an antagonist to the Mojave, like you suggest if it is a wholly unwanted colonial grab. Without the NCR’s willingness to act, not only do groups like the Fiends have free reign in the outskirts of Vegas, but the Khans have free reign to raid travelers. Which again, if those are the tribals mentioned earlier, it is important to note, were determined raiders freely and openly attacking anyone who they saw fit, with no one powerful enough to stop them prior to the NCR arriving. Of course, there’s also the real threat: Legion. The only reason the whole of the Mojave has not been nailed to crosses, indoctrinated, enslaved, or bred out as human livestock, is because the NCR is holding them off. People often quote Hanlon in this regard without considering what he is actually saying. Unlike a (no Courier on any side) scenario where the NCR lose the dam but maintain a presence in the region, to combat the Legion, if the NCR willingly pulled out in 2287, abandoning all defenses, the Mojave falls to the Legion. House might be able to hold out a short while, but the only real threat to the Legion at that point is the Brotherhood, who are not at a point where they are engaging in any degree of civilization building. It’s only with the NCR, ironically enough, that they are willing to come to the negotiating table with to work out a deal that benefits everyone, from their own faction, to the NCR, to travelers on the roads they take an to patrol and protect.

Interesting points you have about factions. Thanks for sharing opinions people. I dont like discipline or hard work or believe in some case so much and cant imagine thing like shooting people for money so I should be just looter and thief who just want trade and survive without need to join some faction.

I would join the followers of the apocalypse because I admire their goals and wanting to help people. I feel their level of empathy is amazing since I feel most people lack that including the wasteland. Also their are like one of the most friendly factions and they are much more preferable compared to other factions like the brotherhood of steel or even Caesar’s legion.