Spotlight on:

“Freedom is not for free (Seneca, Ep. Mor. 104)”

The Floating Island of Hyperbolic Orbit is a massive, safe nation, notable for its museums and concert halls. Its compassionate, intelligent population of 2.585 billion love a good election, and the government gives them plenty of them. Universities tend to be full of students debating the merits of various civil and political rights, while businesses are tightly regulated and the wealthy viewed with suspicion.

It is difficult to tell where the omnipresent, corrupt, socially-minded government stops and the rest of society begins, but it juggles the competing demands of Education, the Environment, and Social Welfare. It meets every day to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Menaion. 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 government has declined to declare any particular religion as its 'official' one, voters must frequently select what they view as the lesser of two evils on the ballot, the government is notorious for leaving citizens with almost nothing from their inheritance, and a study has shown that many parents are too embarrassed to teach their children sex education. Crime -- especially youth-related -- is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Hyperbolic Orbit's national animal is the furball, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its currency is the Orbit.

Hyperbolic Orbit is ranked 508th in the region and 4,520th in the world for Most Compassionate Citizens.