Location: 10000 Islands

Overview • People • Government • Economy • Trend • Analysis

The Commonwealth of Dustwind is a massive, safe nation, ruled by Dusty Dustican with an iron fist, and notable for its punitive income tax rates. Its hard-nosed, hard-working, cynical population of 4.36 billion are rabid consumers, partly through choice and partly because the government tells them to and dissenters tend to vanish from their homes at night.

It is difficult to tell where the omnipresent, corrupt, pro-business government stops and the rest of society begins, but it is mainly concerned with Defence, although Law & Order and Commerce are secondary priorities. It meets every day to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Palace of Dust. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 68%. A powerhouse of a private sector is led by the Arms Manufacturing industry, followed by Gambling and Uranium Mining.

Students who refuse to pray are expelled from school, wealthy students ride to school past mendicant dropouts, scientists regularly clone human beings for research purposes, and Dustwind-made cars tend to catch fire in people's driveways. Crime -- especially youth-related -- is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force. Dustwind's national animal is the scorpion, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation, its national religion is Sufferology, and its currency is the gold dust.

Dustwind is ranked 12th in 10000 Islands and 739th in the world for Largest Insurance Industry, scoring 13 on the Risk Expulsion Effectiveness Rating.

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NationStates by Max Barry, author of and