Location: Canada

Overview • People • Government • Economy • Trend • Analysis

The Protectorate of Ishmiel is a gargantuan, socially progressive nation, ruled by Leader with a fair hand, and renowned for its parental licensing program. Its compassionate, intelligent population of 15.772 billion love a good election, and the government gives them plenty of them. Universities tend to be full of students debating the merits of various civil and political rights, while businesses are tightly regulated and the wealthy viewed with suspicion.

It is difficult to tell where the omnipresent, corrupt, socially-minded government stops and the rest of society begins, but it juggles the competing demands of Education, Defence, and Commerce. It meets every day to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Ishmiel City. The average income tax rate is 100%. A powerhouse of a private sector is led by the Book Publishing industry, followed by Arms Manufacturing and Uranium Mining.

Much of Ishmiel's computer network is controlled by a rampant artificial intelligence, high food prices have reduced the national diet to staple foods and water, pharmacies close down as medicinal drugs are sold freely by the government, and military funding has been stripped back. Crime -- especially youth-related -- is crippling. Ishmiel's national animal is the whale, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation, its national religion is a major religion, and its currency is the waine.

Ishmiel is ranked 7th in Canada and 1,213th in the world for Most Compassionate Citizens, scoring 85 on the Kitten Softness Rating.

Preview

NationStates by Max Barry, author of and