Spotlight on:

“The Realm of Possibility”

The Autonomous Barony of Balthamos is a gargantuan, environmentally stunning nation, notable for its complete lack of prisons. Its compassionate, hard-working, intelligent population of 11.335 billion have some civil rights, but not too many, enjoy the freedom to spend their money however they like, to a point, and take part in free and open elections, although not too often.

It is difficult to tell where the omnipresent government stops and the rest of society begins, but it juggles the competing demands of the Environment, Education, and Law & Order. The average income tax rate is 83%. The private sector is almost wholly made up of enterprising fourteen-year-old boys selling lemonade on the sidewalk, although the government is looking at stamping this out.

Legislation sometimes has to battle through weeks of filibustering to pass, heavy industry must go to expensive lengths to dispose of waste and avoid even more costly cleanup costs, police spend their Saturday nights breaking up illegal street races, and travellers are often forcibly evicted by torch-bearing mobs. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Balthamos's national animal is the Naphele, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its currency is the Planetary .

Balthamos is ranked 23rd in the region and 31,287th in the world for Highest Unemployment Rates.