Location: the West Pacific

Overview • People • Government • Economy • Trend • Analysis

The Eyes to the Sky of Papercuts and Skittles is a colossal, economically powerful nation, renowned for its keen interest in outer space. Its hard-nosed, hard-working, cynical population of 7.219 billion are ruled by a mostly-benevolent dictator, who grants the populace the freedom to live their own lives but watches carefully for anyone to slip up.

It is difficult to tell where the omnipresent government stops and the rest of society begins, but it juggles the competing demands of Education, Healthcare, and Defence. The average income tax rate is 73%, and even higher for the wealthy. A powerhouse of a private sector is led by the Information Technology industry, followed by Gambling and Uranium Mining.

Government popup ads are springing up like weeds, a cyber-war between file sharers and the music industry formats hard drives across the country, seafood restaurants assure customers 'If it lives in the sea, it's on our menu', and the fire protection service is wholly government-funded. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Papercuts and Skittles's national animal is the skittle, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation, and its currency is the papercut.

Papercuts and Skittles is ranked 30th in the West Pacific and 1,990th in the world for Largest Mining Sector, scoring 12 on the Blue Sky Asbestos Index.

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NationStates by Max Barry, author of and