Location: 10000 Islands

Overview • People • Government • Economy • Trend • Analysis

The Syndicate of Hayden Island is a gargantuan, cultured nation, renowned for its devotion to social welfare. Its compassionate, intelligent population of 14.404 billion are free to do what they want with their own bodies, and vote for whoever they like in elections; if they go into business, however, they are regulated to within an inch of their lives.

It is difficult to tell where the omnipresent, liberal, socially-minded government stops and the rest of society begins, but it is effectively ruled by the Department of Social Welfare, with areas such as Religion & Spirituality and Law & Order receiving almost no funds by comparison. It meets every day to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Portland. The average income tax rate is 81%, and even higher for the wealthy. 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.

Abortions are routinely performed in Hayden Island's hospitals, untold millions of Credits are going into a new government-funded maternity leave scheme, the government has instituted 'traveller reservations' across the country, and the rich are forced to sell their cars to pay for more police to prevent their cars from being stolen. Crime -- especially youth-related -- is crippling, probably because of the country's utter lack of prisons. Hayden Island's national animal is the Raven, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its currency is the Credit.

Hayden Island is ranked 2,102nd in 10000 Islands and 101,549th in the world for Largest Insurance Industry, scoring -21 on the Risk Expulsion Effectiveness Rating.

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NationStates by Max Barry, author of and