Location: Philosophia

Overview • People • Government • Economy • Trend • Analysis

The Lacklustre Realm of Insouciant Despondence is a huge, environmentally stunning nation, remarkable for its irreverence towards religion. Its compassionate, intelligent population of 975 million 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, socially-minded government stops and the rest of society begins, but it is mainly concerned with Education, although Social Welfare and Social Equality are secondary priorities. It meets every day to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Woebegone. The average income tax rate is 69%, and even higher for the wealthy. A powerhouse of a private sector is dominated by the Book Publishing industry.

Re-education centers are being added to most prisons, students are known to arrive at school in their pyjamas, the government helps teach children how to kill a man from six paces, and citizens are expected to be proficient in at least five languages. Crime is relatively low. Insouciant Despondence's national animal is the Phytoplankter, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its currency is the blik.

Insouciant Despondence is ranked 4th in Philosophia and 93,014th in the world for Largest Insurance Industry, scoring -5 on the Risk Expulsion Effectiveness Rating.

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NationStates by Max Barry, author of and