Location: The East Pacific

Overview • People • Government • Economy • Trend • Analysis

The FRINGE fans of Free Underwear Fliers is a massive, economically powerful nation, ruled by Frozen Snake with a fair hand, and remarkable for its complete absence of social welfare. Its hard-nosed, hard-working, intelligent population of 3.815 billion enjoy a sensible mix of personal and economic freedoms, while the political process is open and the people's right to vote held sacrosanct.

It is difficult to tell where the omnipresent government stops and the rest of society begins, but it concentrates mainly on Defence, although Commerce and Education are on the agenda. It meets every day to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Barbania. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 49%. A powerhouse of a private sector is led by the Information Technology industry, followed by Arms Manufacturing and Book Publishing.

Crowds of flag-burning protesters tend to accidentally become crowds of burning protesters, politicians are to be found scavenging bins at night to supplement their income, lending firms are subject to strict government regulations, and students are known to arrive at school in their pyjamas. Crime -- especially youth-related -- is crippling. Free Underwear Fliers's national animal is the baboon, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation, its national religion is the Capitalistic Profit Motive, and its currency is the type.

Free Underwear Fliers is ranked 34th in The East Pacific and 1,796th in the world for Largest Insurance Industry, scoring 9 on the Risk Expulsion Effectiveness Rating.

Preview

NationStates by Max Barry, author of and