Location: Middle Earth

Overview • People • Government • Economy • Trend • Analysis

The Fiefdom of Baristolth is a massive, safe nation, renowned for its compulsory military service. Its compassionate, cynical population of 2.02 billion are ruled with an iron fist by the dictatorship government, which ensures that no-one outside the party gets too rich. In their personal lives, however, citizens are relatively unoppressed; it remains to be seen whether this is because the government genuinely cares about its people, or if it hasn't gotten around to stamping out civil rights yet.

The government -- a sprawling, bureaucracy-choked, socially-minded morass -- juggles the competing demands of Religion & Spirituality, Education, and Social Welfare. The average income tax rate is 43%, but much higher for the wealthy. A small private sector is led by the Information Technology industry, followed by Woodchip Exports and Pizza Delivery.

Elections have been outlawed. Crime -- especially youth-related -- is totally unknown. Baristolth's national animal is the bronze dragon, and its currency is the carapace.

Baristolth is ranked 4th in Middle Earth and 47,685th in the world for Largest Insurance Industry, scoring 1 on the Risk Expulsion Effectiveness Rating.

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NationStates by Max Barry, author of and