Location: Europe

Overview • People • Government • Economy • Trend • Analysis

The Principality of Castanos is a massive, economically powerful nation, ruled by Leader with an iron fist, and notable for its punitive income tax rates. Its hard-nosed, hard-working, cynical population of 1.884 billion 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 Social Welfare, Healthcare, and Education. It meets every day to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Carano. The average income tax rate is 68%. A powerhouse of a private sector is led by the Book Publishing, Tourism, and Automobile Manufacturing industries.

Recruitment posters proclaim the army to be both fabulous and fashionable, a niche industry catering to S&M enthusiasts has sprung up, the government seizes all major gold finds, and government-run screening operations remove embryos with severe genetic disorders. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Castanos's national animal is the Lemurian, which is also the nation's favorite main course, its national religion is a major religion, and its currency is the Hean.

Castanos is ranked 157th in Europe and 28,976th 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