Location: Scandinavia

Overview • People • Government • Economy • Trend • Analysis

The Lost Paradise of Kapellen is a gargantuan, genial nation, ruled by Dirk Van Mechelen with a fair hand, and renowned for its devotion to social welfare. Its compassionate, intelligent population of 17.028 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 government stops and the rest of society begins, but it juggles the competing demands of Education, the Environment, and Social Welfare. It meets every day to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Hobonia. The average income tax rate is 84%, 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.

A vast monorail network carries people all over the country, the "Underwear of Women in Power" issue of The Hobonia Times is sold out, fewer people are bathing as citizens must show ration stamps before they can turn on their faucets, and orphanages are closing their doors as the government forces parents to actually raise their children. Crime is totally unknown. Kapellen's national animal is the guanoape, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its currency is the krone.

Kapellen is ranked 90th in Scandinavia and 100,737th in the world for Largest Insurance Industry, scoring -11 on the Risk Expulsion Effectiveness Rating.

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NationStates by Max Barry, author of and