Location: Babylon 5

Overview • People • Government • Economy • Trend • Analysis

The Most Serene Republic of Big-Rock Candy Mountain is a huge, environmentally stunning nation, renowned for its compulsory military service. Its hard-nosed, cynical population of 574 million are kept under strict control by the oppressive government, which measures its success by the nation's GDP and refers to individual citizens as "human resources."

It is difficult to tell where the omnipresent, corrupt government stops and the rest of society begins, but it juggles the competing demands of Law & Order, Defence, and Education. It meets every day to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Big-Rock Candy Mountain City. The average income tax rate is 80%, and even higher for the wealthy. A powerhouse of a private sector is led by the Tourism industry, followed by Beef-Based Agriculture and Trout Farming.

Conductors wield diamond-encrusted batons to fit in with their freshly gilded surroundings, travellers are often forcibly evicted by torch-bearing mobs, bloodthirsty zealots regularly participate in the Friday Night Stoning of Adulterers, and Animal Liberationists are regularly jailed. Crime -- especially youth-related -- is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Big-Rock Candy Mountain's national animal is the Pig, which is also the nation's favorite main course, and its currency is the Kidney.

Big-Rock Candy Mountain is ranked 14th in Babylon 5 and 80,664th in the world for Largest Insurance Industry, scoring -2 on the Risk Expulsion Effectiveness Rating.

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NationStates by Max Barry, author of and