Location: Balder

Overview • People • Government • Economy • Trend • Analysis

The Kingdom of Hamsterland is a massive, safe nation, renowned for its barren, inhospitable landscape. Its hard-nosed population of 1.346 billion have some civil rights, but not too many, enjoy the freedom to spend their money however they like, to a point, and take part in free and open elections, although not too often.

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, Education, and Healthcare. It meets every day to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Hamsterland City. The average income tax rate is 45%, but much higher for the wealthy. A powerhouse of a private sector is led by the Woodchip Exports industry, followed by Uranium Mining and Pizza Delivery.

The studies of art and philosophy are banned, CDs are regularly copy-protected, all government facilities are built in the subterranean citadel of Hamsterland City, and suburban families are finding themselves increasingly short on food as they waste precious water on their lawns. Crime -- especially youth-related -- is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Hamsterland's national animal is the Hamster, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation, and its currency is the Seed.

Hamsterland is ranked 2,256th in Balder and 101,878th in the world for Most Extreme, scoring 11 on the Paul-Nader Subjective Decentrality Index.

NationStates by Max Barry, author of and