Location: Lazarus

Overview • People • Government • Economy • Trend • Analysis

The Grand Duchy of Desperate Measures is a gargantuan, socially progressive nation, ruled by Schrodingers Puppy with a fair hand, and notable for its happy-go-lucky citizens. Its compassionate, intelligent population of 12.778 billion love a good election, and the government gives them plenty of them. Universities tend to be full of students debating the merits of various civil and political rights, while businesses are tightly regulated and the wealthy viewed with suspicion.

It is difficult to tell where the omnipresent, socially-minded government stops and the rest of society begins, but it juggles the competing demands of Social Welfare, Education, and the Environment. It meets every day to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Brick City. The average income tax rate is 98%. 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.

Retirement homes are often fitted with luxurious suites, there's a shortage of swinging hot spots as land development grinds to a halt, roads are often attended by round-the-clock construction crews, and schools have extensive counseling programs for troubled students. Crime is totally unknown. Desperate Measures's national animal is the wild cow, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its currency is the cigarette.

Desperate Measures is ranked 83rd in Lazarus and 1,085th in the world for Most Compassionate Citizens, scoring 91 on the Kitten Softness Rating.

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NationStates by Max Barry, author of and