Spotlight on:

“I'll Write You a Check”

The Grand Duchy of Desperate Measures is a colossal, safe nation, ruled by Schrodingers Puppy with a fair hand, and remarkable for its national health service. Its compassionate, intelligent population of 9.109 billion are free to do what they want with their own bodies, and vote for whoever they like in elections; if they go into business, however, they are regulated to within an inch of their lives.

It is difficult to tell where the omnipresent, socially-minded government stops and the rest of society begins, but it juggles the competing demands of the Environment, Social Welfare, and Education. It meets every day to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Brick City. The average income tax rate is 100%. 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.

The study of medicine is popular throughout Desperate Measures, crowds of flag-burning protesters tend to accidentally become crowds of burning protesters, the government is using tax revenues to provide jobs for the poor, and eight year-olds can be seen lighting up in public areas. Crime is totally unknown. Desperate Measures's national animal is the wild cow, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its currency is the cigarette.

Desperate Measures is ranked 48th in the region and 631st in the world for Best Weather.