Location: the West Pacific

Overview • People • Government • Economy • Trend • Analysis

The United Socialist States of Nostranda is a huge, safe nation, remarkable for its ban on automobiles. Its compassionate, cynical population of 615 million are ruled with an iron fist by the dictatorship government, which ensures that no-one outside the party gets too rich. In their personal lives, however, citizens are relatively unoppressed; it remains to be seen whether this is because the government genuinely cares about its people, or if it hasn't gotten around to stamping out civil rights yet.

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, Healthcare, and Defence. It meets every day to discuss matters of state in the capital city of New Pretoria. The average income tax rate is 84%, and even higher for the wealthy. Private enterprise is illegal, but for those in the know there is a slick and highly efficient black market in Woodchip Exports.

The government is avowedly atheist, citizens are regularly arrested in queues for 'loitering', museums stand half-empty as all foreign exhibits are returned to their countries of origin, and pharmacies close down as medicinal drugs are sold freely by the government. Crime -- especially youth-related -- is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Nostranda's national animal is the Human, which is also the nation's favorite main course, and its currency is the Peonal.

Nostranda is ranked 3,780th in the West Pacific and 87,042nd in the world for Shortest Average Lifespan, scoring -20 on the Bus Surprisal Index.

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NationStates by Max Barry, author of and