Location: Balder

Overview • People • Government • Economy • Trend • Analysis

The United Kingdom of Alpo is a huge, devout nation, notable for its barren, inhospitable landscape. Its hard-nosed, hard-working, cynical population of 835 million are ruled by a mostly-benevolent dictator, who grants the populace the freedom to live their own lives but watches carefully for anyone to slip up.

It is difficult to tell where the omnipresent government stops and the rest of society begins, but it juggles the competing demands of Law & Order, Defence, and Public Transport. It meets every day to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Kauala Lumper. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 26%. 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.

The government jails the parents of underage drinkers, motorists must pay to enter inner-cities during peak hours, universities are populated by the spawn of the upper classes, and newspapers cannot report anything about politicians without their explicit consent. Crime -- especially youth-related -- is a major problem. Alpo's national animal is the Malayan Tiger, which is also the nation's favorite main course, and its currency is the Dollar.

Alpo is ranked 2,573rd in Balder and 96,580th in the world for Largest Insurance Industry, scoring -6 on the Risk Expulsion Effectiveness Rating.

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NationStates by Max Barry, author of and