Location: the Pacific

Overview • People • Government • Economy • Trend • Analysis

The Weed-Choked Lawn of A mean old man is a colossal, economically powerful nation, ruled by a tired and angry old fart with an iron fist, and renowned for its keen interest in outer space. Its hard-nosed, hard-working, cynical population of 8.251 billion are ruled with an iron fist by the corrupt, dictatorship government, which oppresses anyone who isn't on the board of a Fortune 500 company. Large corporations tend to be above the law, and use their financial clout to gain ever-increasing government benefits at the expense of the poor and unemployed.

It is difficult to tell where the omnipresent, corrupt, moralistic government stops and the rest of society begins, but it juggles the competing demands of Defence, Law & Order, and Commerce. It meets every day to discuss matters of state in the capital city of the world. The average income tax rate is 99%. The private sector is almost wholly made up of enterprising ten-year-olds selling lemonade on the sidewalk, although the government is looking at stamping this out.

Police officers have nearly cracked a major underage astronomy syndicate, teams of painters are converting road signs from horse lengths to kilometers, notable individuals are granted land and titles, and torture is commonly used to extract information from suspected criminals. Crime -- especially youth-related -- is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force. A mean old man's national animal is the really old cat, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, its national religion is forgotten, and its currency is the colostomy bag.

A mean old man is ranked 9th in the Pacific and 571st in the world for Largest Public Sector, scoring 42 on the Bureaucratic Comprehensiveness Rating Scale Index.

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NationStates by Max Barry, author of and