Location: the South Pacific

Overview • People • Government • Economy • Trend • Analysis

The Democratic Republic of Lovely People is a massive, genial nation, ruled by Paul Clarke with a fair hand, and renowned for its anti-smoking policies. Its compassionate, hard-working, intelligent population of 1.225 billion enjoy a sensible mix of personal and economic freedoms, while the political process is open and the people's right to vote held sacrosanct.

It is difficult to tell where the omnipresent government stops and the rest of society begins, but it juggles the competing demands of Law & Order, Education, and the Environment. It meets every day to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Jensville. The average income tax rate is 75%, 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.

Police officers have been re-kitted with designer uniforms and gold plated handcuffs, citizens are allowed to rise or fall based on their own merits, a cyber-war between file sharers and the music industry formats hard drives across the country, and military funding has been stripped back. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Lovely People's national animal is the Blonde, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its currency is the Shilling.

Lovely People is ranked 4,497th in the South Pacific and 92,365th in the world for Shortest Average Lifespan, scoring -23 on the Bus Surprisal Index.

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NationStates by Max Barry, author of and